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Category: 2014 UW Federal Agenda

Senate Sends Amended CR Back to the House

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Today, the Senate approved an amended version of the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government running when the fiscal year ends on September 30th. The Senate-amended version strips out the House language defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and changes the end date of the CR from December 15th to November 15th.

The bill now goes back to the House for consideration. House leaders are expected to amend it further and send it back to the Senate. House conservatives are pushing for an amendment to delay implementation of the ACA individual mandate for one year. House leaders may also put forward a short one or two week CR to keep government funded while they continue to negotiate a longer-term agreement with Senate Democrats and the White House. House GOP leadership will meet tomorrow to determine their course of action.

The situation remains very fluid. If both chambers do not pass the same bill and send it to the President for his signature by October 1, the federal government will shut down.

To Shutdown, or Not to Shutdown…

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That is the question on everyone’s minds. Today the Senate will offer amendments to the House-passed continuing resolution with the expectation that they will vote on the modified bill no later than Sunday and send it back to the House for consideration. House Republican leadership is already formulating a strategy to further modify the Senate-amended CR and possibly send it back to the Senate again. That measure could contain a one-year delay of the health care law that would draw broad Democratic opposition and a White House veto threat – not to mention that the clock will likely run out and send us into a government shutdown. The House GOP is also reserving the option of passing a “clean” one-week CR to avoid a partial government shutdown while negotiations continue.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the situation and provide further updates throughout the week and into the weekend.

Eight Days to End of Fiscal Year

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There are just eight days left in the current federal fiscal year yet there is no certainty as to how lawmakers will resolve their partisan differences before October 1st. The continuing resolution (CR) approved by the House last Friday will be the focus in the Senate where they will attempt to modify the bill before sending it back to the House for consideration. The House, meanwhile, will shift their immediate attention to a proposal to raise the debt ceiling until after the 2014 November elections.

Continuing Resolution: Senate Democrats will greatly modify the House passed CR to strip it of language defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and keep government funded at current levels. They will send that back to the House where Republican leadership may or may not find enough votes to approve the modified version of the bill. This could lead to a series of back and forth votes between the House and Senate in an effort to avoid a government shutdown if there is no deal by next Monday.

But even a clean, level-funded CR may face opposition from some House Democrats who continue to argue that austerity spending plans are harming the economy and threatening job growth since a level-funded CR would trigger automatic, across-the-board cuts (sequestration). However, those cuts would not begin until January so Congress could still pass separate legislation late in the year to undo them.

Debt Ceiling: Meanwhile, House Republican leaders are drafting a debt limit bill that will likely be unveiled next week and would remove the ceiling on federal borrowing authority beyond the 2014 elections. And, just like their CR, it would delay implementation of the ACA, as well as cut mandatory spending, provide instructions for a tax overhaul, and promote deregulation and energy development.

Although the White House would not necessarily object to a debt limit suspension mechanism, the House plan would be laden with provisions the White House and congressional Democrats oppose. Obama has said he wants a clean debt limit increase before it expires in mid-October and he has ruled out negotiating over an increase in borrowing authority.

Defunding Health Reform Tied to CR

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Update 9/20: The House voted 230-189 to pass the Continuing Resolution which is coupled with a provision to defund Obamacare. It now heads to the Senate where it will almost certainly fail as-is – and the chamber will restore funding, before heading back to the House. Both chambers must come to a consensus and approve a funding bill before October 1st to avoid a government shutdown.

The House Republicans are setting the stage for a possible gov’t shutdown on September 30th. They have just decided to couple a continuing resolution (CR) through December 15th with language defunding the Affordable Care Act, which will definitely get enough votes to pass the House. They could vote as early as tomorrow but more likely Friday or even Saturday. The strategy is to let the Senate Republicans take on the fight on their side through filibuster. The Senate, however, is unlikely to agree to the House bill so the shenanigans will continue into next week and right up to the end of the federal fiscal year. House leadership sees this as a way to force Senate Democrats and the President to negotiate on a delay in health care reform implementation, debt ceiling hike, tax reform, and possibly approving the Keystone pipeline.

17 Days to End of Fiscal Year

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Congress has gone home for the weekend with no new developments on reaching an agreement to fund the government after the fiscal year ends September 30th. It may be too early to talk about government shutdown, but just in case I thought I’d pull up the helpful 2011 FAQ from The Chronicle of Higher Education on what the impacts might be on higher education. We can certainly handle a shutdown for a few days if it comes to that – and today, with no action and no viable plan in sight, it certainly seems possible.