July 10, 2015
The House passed HR5, the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act; HR2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act; and HR 6, the 21st Century Cures Act. The House began consideration of HR2822, the FY16 Interior Appropriations bill, but pulled the bill from the floor after a dispute over amendments. The Senate passed S286, the Department of the Interior Tribal Self-Governance Act of 2015; S143, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Improvements Act; S1180, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act; and S1359, the E-Warranty Act. The Senate began consideration of S1177, the Every Child Achieves Act.
Fiscal Year 2016 Appropriations
The House has passed six of its 12 annual FY16 appropriations bills. But with the House scheduled to be in session for only 24 more days before the end of the fiscal year it is looking less and less likely that they will be able to complete all bills before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The Senate has a little more time as it is scheduled to be in session 35 more days before the end of the fiscal year. However, the Senate has not considered any of its bills on the Senate floor yet.
House
The House was expected to vote on final passage of its $30B FY16 Interior-EPA Appropriations bill on Thursday, but leadership pulled the bill after a Republican dispute over amendments that would have banned the sale of Confederate flags in national parks and their display in federal cemeteries. In committee this week, the House marked up the FY16 Agriculture spending bill in full committee and the FY16 Homeland Security spending bill in subcommittee.
The House Appropriations Committee also approved adjustments to its FY16 302(b) subcommittee allocations. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said that the adjustments were mostly technical in nature to account for updated Congressional Budget Office scoring and changes made to spending bills on the House floor. The adjustments added $1.48B to the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill and $13M to the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, and trimmed small amounts from the Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation-HUD, and Defense spending bills. The changes also shifted $1.82B from the Defense-related Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account to the State-Foreign Operations OCO account. All Democrats on the committee voted against the 302(b) allocation adjustments.
Agriculture
The House Appropriations Committee approved their $20.65B FY16 Agriculture spending bill in full committee this week. The bill is $175M lower than the FY15 level and $1.1 billion below the President’s FY16 budget request. Democrats on the committee opposed the inclusion of a provision that would make tobacco-related products (e.g. e-cigarettes and small cigars) exempt from rigorous pre-market review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While these products are currently unregulated, they would come under FDA oversight once the agency has completed a regulation giving itself broader authority over a range of tobacco-related products. The Administration also voiced its opposition to the provision, and the overall bill, in a letter from OMB Director Shaun Donovan to Chairman Rogers.
Three amendments were offered and approved during the full committee markup:
- Aderholt – The amendment makes technical and non-controversial changes to the bill and report. The amendment was adopted on a voice vote.
- Harris –The amendment would add a provision to grant legal protections from frivolous lawsuits to the users of partially hydrogenated oils until the compliance date issued by FDA. The amendment was adopted on a voice vote.
- DeLauro – The amendment ensures U.S. food safety laws are protected in new trade agreements. The amendment was adopted on a voice vote.
House FY16 Agriculture Appropriations Bill Text:
http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-114hr-fc-ap-fy2016-ap00-agriculture.pdf
House FY16 Agriculture Appropriations Report Language:
http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hrpt-114-hr-fy2016-agriculture.pdf
Letter from OMB Director Donovan to House Appropriations Chairman Rogers:
Homeland Security
The House Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee met this week to mark up its $39.3B FY16 spending bill, which is $337M below the FY15 enacted level and $2.1B below the President’s FY16 budget request. The bill did not include funding to implement the President’s Executive Orders on immigration, and it specifically bars the use of funds for these activities for the duration of ongoing legal proceedings on the issue. It also retains a prohibition on funds to transfer or release detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The bill does provide $11.1B for Customs and Border Protection, $5.8B for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $4.65B for the Transportation Security Administration, $1.6B for Cybersecurity, Critical Infrastructure, and Communications, $8.5B for the Coast Guard, $1.9B for the Secret Service, $7.4B for FEMA disaster relief, $119.7M for Citizenship and Immigration Services, and $786.9M for Science and Technology. The bill is scheduled to be marked up in full committee on Tuesday, July 14.
Draft House FY16 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill Text:
Senate
State Foreign Operations
The Senate Appropriations Committee marked up their $49.03B FY16 State Foreign Operations bill in subcommittee and full committee this week. Of this amount, $39.01B is for the base budget and $9.26B is for Overseas Contingency Operations. The bill is $2.8B below the FY15 enacted level and $4.9B below the President’s FY16 budget request. The bill contains $16.7B for the Department of State ($14B in base funding and $2.7B in OCO funding), $1.28B for USAID, $141.2M for programs to counter violent extremism, $8.47B for global health programs, $6B for global HIV/AIDS assistance, and $7.9B for international security assistance, $2.3B for democracy programs. The bill also prohibits the use of funds to support external email servers at the State Department and USAID. During consideration of the bill, the committee voted to repeal a policy that essentially blocks recipients of U.S. aid from promoting or providing abortions for family planning purposes. The amendment offered by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) originally failed on a voice vote, but passed after she requested a recorded vote.
Administration Letters to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Cochran
OMB Director Shaun Donovan sent three letters this week to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) stating the administration’s opposition to three of the committee’s FY16 spending bills – Department of Homeland Security, Interior, and Labor-HHS-Education.
DHS Letter from OMB Director Donovan to Senate Appropriations Chairman Cochran:
Interior Letter from OMB Director Donovan to Senate Appropriations Chairman Cochran:
Labor HHS Letter from OMB Director Donovan to Senate Appropriations Chairman Cochran:
Status of FY16 Appropriations Bills
| Subcommittee | House Action | Senate Action |
| Agriculture | Subcommittee: 6/18/15
Full Committee: 7/8/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Commerce-Justice-Science | Subcommittee: 5/14/15
Full Committee: 5/20/15 Floor: 6/3/15 |
Subcommittee: 6/10/15
Full Committee: 6/11/15 Floor: |
| Defense | Subcommittee: 5/20/15
Full Committee: 6/2/15 Floor: 6/11/15 |
Subcommittee: 6/9/15
Full Committee: 6/11/15 Floor: |
| Energy & Water | Subcommittee: 4/15/15
Full Committee: 4/22/15 Floor: 5/1/15 |
Subcommittee: 5/19/15
Full Committee: 5/21/15 Floor: |
| Financial Services | Subcommittee: 6/11/15
Full Committee: 6/17/15 Floor: week of July 13? |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Homeland Security | Subcommittee: 7/9/15
Full Committee: 7/14/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee: 6/16/15
Full Committee: 6/18/15 Floor: |
| Interior-Environment | Subcommittee: 6/10/15
Full Committee: 6/16/15 Floor: pulled from floor |
Subcommittee: 6/16/15
Full Committee: 6/18/15 Floor: |
| Labor-HHS-Education | Subcommittee: 6/17/15
Full Committee: 6/24/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee: 6/23/15
Full Committee: 6/25/15 Floor: |
| Legislative Branch | Subcommittee: 4/23/15
Full Committee: 4/30/15 Floor: 5/19/15 |
Full Committee: 6/11/15
Floor: |
| Military Construction-VA | Subcommittee: 4/15/15
Full Committee: 4/22/15 Floor: 4/30/15 |
Subcommittee: 5/19/15
Full Committee: 5/21/15 Floor: |
| State-Foreign Operations | Subcommittee: 6/3/15
Full Committee: 6/11/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee: 7/7/15
Full Committee: 7/9/15 Floor: |
| Transportation-HUD | Subcommittee: 4/29/15
Full Committee: 5/13/15 Floor: 6/9/15 |
Subcommittee: 6/23/15
Full Committee: 6/25/15 Floor: |
National Defense Authorization Act
The Senate approved a motion to go to conference on the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act this week. The cloture vote on the motion was agreed to by a vote of 81 to 15, and then the motion was agreed to by voice vote. The Senate then appointed the following members as conferees: McCain (R-AZ), Inhofe (R-OK), Sessions (R-AL), Wicker (R-MS), Ayotte (R-NH), Fischer (R-NE), Cotton (R-AR), Rounds (R-SD), Graham (R-SC), Reed (D-RI), Nelson (D-FL), Manchin (D-WV), Gillibrand (D-NY), Donnelly (D-IN), Hirono (D-HI), and Kaine (D-VA).
Budget Reconciliation
The July 24 deadline for reporting budget reconciliation instructions is fast approaching, and it isn’t clear how Republican leaders will use the process. Initially, they wanted to use it to repeal the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). However, after the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis last month in which they estimated that repealing the law would increase the federal deficit anywhere from $137 billion from FY16 to FY25 (dynamic scoring) up to $353 billion (traditional budget scoring) and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of federal health subsidies, they may be rethinking their strategy. The reconciliation process must reduce the deficit by at least $1 billion – either through cutting spending, raising revenue, or a combination of the two. Three House committees (Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and the Workforce) and two Senate Committees (Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) are involved in the process and are still considering their options on how to proceed. While the committees are required to present legislation to their respective Budget Committees by the July 24 deadline, it is considered a “soft” deadline and committees have regularly missed it in the past without jeopardizing the use of reconciliation procedures. Once they have presented their legislation, the Budget Committees then assemble the provisions into a reconciliation package and report the legislation to their full chambers.
Political Updates
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Katherine Archuleta submitted her resignation to President Obama this morning, which he accepted. Calls for her resignation started to include Democratic members of Congress (Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA and Rep. Jim Langevin, D-RI) after OPM announced yesterday that the breach of its background investigations had compromised sensitive information (including social security numbers) of more than 21.5 million individuals. Beth Cobert, the Deputy Director of Management at the Office of Management and Budget will step in temporarily to replace Archuleta while a permanent replacement is found.
One more Republican candidate threw his hat into the ring for the 2016 Presidential race – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He joins the already crowded Republican field that includes Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, businessman Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former NY Governor George Pataki, and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). And Ohio Governor John Kasich, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore are expected to announce their candidacies soon. On the Democrat side, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb announced his candidacy this week. He joins the Democratic field that includes former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, former Rhode Island Governor and Senator (and former Republican) Lincoln Chaffee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
State Senator Darin LaHood (R-IL) easily won the GOP primary in a special election to replace former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock. Schock resigned earlier this year after investigations into his spending habits. The district is a safe Republican district. LaHood is the son of former Illinois Representative and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter appointed his Chief of Staff Eric Fanning to be Acting Undersecretary of the Army. Carter also promoted Eric Rosenbach to become his new Chief of Staff. Rosenbach is currently Deputy Chief of Staff. Fanning is a former acting Secretary of the Air Force, and has been discussed as a potential replacement for Army Secretary John McHugh, who is stepping down no later than November 1, 2015. Carter also made the following appointments in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics: James Galvin to be Deputy Director of Portfolio Management and Outreach, Clothilda Taylor to be Principal Deputy Director for Administration, and Richard Pino to be Principal Deputy Director of Command, Control, Communications, Cyber, and Business Systems and Deputy Director of Command and Control Programs. And Brad Carson, was nominated by the President to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Department of Defense. Carson has been in an acting capacity in the position since last year. Carson is a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma.
President Obama nominated Mary Wakefield to be Deputy Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, Anthony Coscia and Derek Kan to be Directors on the AMTRAK Board of Directors, Matthew Rhett Jeppson to be Director of the U.S. Mint, and Andy Slavitt to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Michael Brown will take over as Chief Information Officer at the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 26. Brown replaces Kevin Kern who left nine months ago.
Next Week
The House will take up HR 2898, the Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015, and may take up the FY16 Financial Services Appropriations bill. The Senate is expected to complete consideration of S1177, the Every Child Achieves Act and then move on to a highway funding bill, whose current authorization expires at the end of July.