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115th Congress Senate Democratic Leadership & Committees

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Today Senate Democrats held leadership elections, placing some familiar faces in new roles within the caucus. New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer will take the helm as Minority Leader, a position vacated by Harry Reid (NV) following his retirement at the end of the 114th Congress. Minority Whip goes to Illinois’ Senator Richard Durbin and our own Senator Patty Murray (WA) will take on the role of Assistant Leader, making her the third highest ranking person within the Senate Democratic hierarchy. (Congrats Senator Murray!!)  Also of note, Senator Schumer expanded the leadership team to include Senator Bernie Sanders, who will assume the new role of Chair of Outreach. 

Sanders will also assume the Ranking Minority role on the Committee on Budget. Senator Murray will remain Ranking Minority on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Senator Maria Cantwell remains Ranking Minority on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Here is a list of all Leadership and Committee positions for the 115th Congress.

The Senate Democratic Leadership for the 115th Congress:

Senate Democratic Leader and Chair of the Conference: Senator Charles Schumer

Democratic Whip: Senator Dick Durbin

Assistant Democratic Leader: Senator Patty Murray

Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee: Senator Debbie Stabenow

Vice Chair of the Conference: Senator Elizabeth Warren

Vice Chair of the Conference: Senator Mark Warner

Chair of Steering Committee: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Chair of Outreach: Senator Bernie Sanders

Vice Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee: Senator Joe Manchin

Senate Democratic Conference Secretary: Senator Tammy Baldwin

 

The committee ranking members for the 115th Congress:

 Agriculture: Senator Debbie Stabenow

Armed Services: Senator Jack Reed

Appropriations: Senator Patrick Leahy

Banking: Senator Sherrod Brown

Budget: Senator Bernie Sanders

Commerce: Senator Bill Nelson

Energy: Senator Maria Cantwell

EPW: Senator Tom Carper

Finance: Senator Ron Wyden

Foreign Relations: Senator Ben Cardin

HELP: Senator Patty Murray

HSGAC: Senator Claire McCaskill

Indian Affairs: Senator Tom Udall

Judiciary: Senator Dianne Feinstein

Rules: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Small Business: Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Veterans Affairs: Senator Jon Tester

Aging: Senator Bob Casey

Ethics: Senator Chris Coons

Intelligence: Senator Mark Warner

JEC: Senator Martin Heinrich

NCAA Championships Moved Away From North Carolina

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The NCAA has announced it will no longer hold championship tournament games in North Carolina, citing a law passed by the state last year that eliminates discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community. The law, House Bill 2, gained national attention for mandating that individuals use the bathroom associated with the gender listed on their birth certificate.

In a statement from the NCAA Board of Governors, which is largely made up of university presidents and chancellors, the NCAA said, “NCAA championships and events must promote an inclusive atmosphere for all college athletes, coaches, administrators and fans. Current North Carolina state laws make it challenging to guarantee that host communities can help deliver on that commitment.” The NCAA is the latest of many organization, including the NBA, to voice disapproval of the measure.

NIH Reinforces Commitment to Basic Science

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This week Dr. Francis Collins and senior leadership at NIH published a letter in Science reinforcing the agency’s commitment to basic science and introducing a revision to our grant application instructions. The updated instructions will ensure that the public health relevance statement in grant applications better reflects the full spectrum of the NIH mission and its commitment to support a robust, diverse research portfolio, including pursuit of basic knowledge. The full text of the letter can be viewed here.

 

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.