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Category: Federal Agency Developments

Snow Week

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Congress has screeched to a halt this week as DC continues to be quagmired in snow by Snowzilla.

Bench on Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC

A blizzard that blanketed the Northeast this weekend has disrupted the congressional calendar, with the House canceling all votes for the week and the Senate pushing its first vote to Wednesday evening. Congressional Democrats still plan on gather in Baltimore Wednesday evening until Friday for the annual Democratic issues retreat, which was truncating the Congressional calendar on the weather-shortened week. The Federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) closed all federal offices again on Monday as the District continues to dig out from record snow fall. Meanwhile the latest controversy in the District is the snow totals and how they are officially calculated for DC. The official totals, recorded at Reagan National Airport, came in at 17.8 inches of snow, and many are taking issue with this official recording. Dulles reported 29.3 inches of snow.

Other fun facts:

  • New York City missed is its all-time storm record by a tenth of an inch, with 26.8 inches at Central Park. Meanwhile, 30.1 inches was recorded at JFK airport.
  • Worst-hit was the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, according to the National Weather Service, with 42 inches recorded in Glengarry and 40.5 in Shepherdstown.
  • Airports are recovering, but at least 1,500 flighs were canceled Monday according to FlightAware.

When Congress returns, they come back to a full and already truncated calendar. The FY 2017 Budget will be front and center as Congress waits for the President’s FY 2017 budget request as well as working through a potential budget itself. While Congress does not need to pass a budget for FY 2017 due to the budget deal reached last year that covered FY 2016 and FY 2017, reports of the rising deficit have brought federal budgeting again to the forefront. For the first time since 2009, the deficit will grow relative to the size of the economy, amounting to 2.9 percent of gross domestic product. This year’s deficit is projected to be $544 billion, up from $439 billion last year.

Politics will be in full swing as the Iowa and New Hampshire presidential primaries are fast approaching while the Senators and Members of Congress also begin to focus on their own primaries.

GAO Calls for Better Health Care Workforce Plan

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The Secretary of Health and Human Services should develop a comprehensive and coordinated planning approach to guide the department’s health care workforce development programs, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office. “Without a comprehensive and coordinated approach to program planning, HHS cannot fully identify the gaps between existing programs and national needs, identify actions needed to address these gaps, or determine whether additional legislative proposals are needed to ensure that its programs fully meet workforce needs,” GAO said. In the report, HHS said it plans to convene an interagency group to assess existing workforce programs and the potential need for changes or expanded legislative authority. Leaders of the Senate Committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions,  Homeland Security, and Governmental Affairs asked GAO to study HHS’s activities to ensure that federal funding is aligned with the nation’s health care needs. The Affordable Care Act created the National Health Care Workforce Commission to annually recommend to Congress and the administration national health care workforce priorities, goals, and policies, but Congress has not allocated funding to the commission.

House Pushes “Pause” on Syria Refugees

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The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to slap stringent — and difficult to implement — new screening procedures on refugees from Syria seeking resettlement, seizing on the fear stemming from the Paris attacks.

The bill passed by a vote of 289 to 137 with nearly 50 Democrats in support even after Administration officials implored congressional Democrats to vote down the bill. The measure would require that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence confirm that each applicant from Syria and Iraq poses no threat. The White House has declared the requirements “untenable.”

The White House has threatened to veto the measure should it pass the Senate and be sent to the President for signature.

University of Phoenix Being Investigated

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The Departments of Justice and Education announced they are are coordinating on on-going investigations of the University of Phoenix a day after the Pentagon barred the for-profit school giant from recruiting on military bases and placed it on probation for alleged recruiting violations.

The Department of Defense took the action after the University of Phoenix, among other things, used military “challenge coins” when recruiting troops. The commonly used and given coins—which are bigger than a silver dollar and often have unit insignia—are often given by those in the military to one another for a job well done or to commemorate an event. The University of Phoenix used trademarked seals and insignia on their coins without the consent of the military,  which appears to the crux of the issue. Phoenix has said it has since stopped using such coins.

In June, the Department of Education said it had established an interagency task force, led by Under Secretary Ted Mitchell, to help ensure proper accountability for and oversight of career colleges and for-profit institutions.

 

 

White House Memo on Science Priorities for FY2017

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The White House’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shaun Donovan, and OSTP Director, John Holdren, sent their annual joint FY2017 priorities memo to the science agency heads.

The memo urges agency leaders to take the priorities into consideration as they begin to prepare their FY2017 budget proposals for OMB.  Per the memo, “Agency proposals aligned with multi-agency R&D priorities and demonstrating interagency coordination are more likely to be prioritized in FY2017 Budget deliberations.”

Read the memorandum here.