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Category: Week at a Glance

This Week in Congress, January 23-27

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This week in committees.

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017

 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

NOMINATION OF REX TILLERSON FOR SECRETARY OF STATE

4:30 p.m. Jan. 23, 419 Dirksen Bldg.

Full Committee Markup

 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017

 

House Budget Committee

FAILURES OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Jan. 23, 10:15 a.m., 210 Cannon

Full Committee Hearing

 

House Ways & Means Committee

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT INDIVIDUAL MANDATE

Jan. 24, 2 p.m., 1100 Longworth Bldg.

Subcommittee Hearing

 

Senate Armed Services Committee

DEFENSE BUDGET OUTLOOK

Jan. 24, 9:30 a.m., 216 Hart Bldg.

Full Committee Hearing

 

Senate Budget Committee

REP. MICK MULVANEY NOMINATION FOR OMB DIRECTOR

Jan. 24, 10:30 a.m., 608 Dirksen Bldg.

Full Committee Hearing

 

Senate Finance Committee

REP. TOM PRICE NOMINATION FOR HHS SECRETARY

Jan. 24, 10 a.m., 215 Dirksen Bldg.

Full Committee Hearing

 

 

The Week Ahead

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Congress is back for a few days before the Fourth of July Recess. The House and Senate return tomorrow, and the House will recess on Friday making the Fourth a two week recess. The Senate plans on being in session though Friday, June 24th.

The Senate reconvened today and is expected to resume consideration of FY 2017 CJS Appropriations bill.  Also for Monday, the Senate has scheduled four votes on competing, partisan plans aimed at prohibiting suspected terrorists from buying guns and strengthening background checks for gun sales. A nearly 15-hour Democratic filibuster aimed at forcing a vote to restrict gun sales prompted the votes, but with 60 votes needed to advance a measure under Senate rules, none of the proposals may have enough support to get adopted.

The House reconvenes Tuesday and is expected to consider measures under suspension of the rules, including several cyber security bills. For the remainder of the week, the House will consider the FY 2017 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill. 

Congress Gets Back to Work for the Long Slog

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The House and Senate return to work this week in what will be the largest number of consecutive legislative days prior to the August Recess.  Both legislative bodies will push pause and briefly come together for a joint session to receive Indian Prime Minister Modi.

The Senate returns today to resume consideration on its FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which was slightly detoured last week. The Senate Appropriations Committee to have full consideration of the FY 2017 Labor-H Appropriations bill this week — subcommittee will mark up Tuesday and full committee will consider Thursday. The Labor-H bill contains many of the issues that the higher education community is concerned about including student loans, Pell grants, Perkins, and NIH funding among others. The bill is currently in a close hold, but it is expected to expand the Pell grant program to become year round.

More information will be made available as soon as possible.

The House will return Wednesday to consider the FY 2017 Legislative Affairs appropriations bill as well as legislation to bailout Puerto Rico from its $70 billion in debt (for an island of under 3.5 million people). The island has defaulted three times, and its next big payout is due July 1. The Puerto Rico “bailout” has been very controversial on the House-side of the Hill. The territory has argued it simply needs leniency to restructure its current debt to reduce or delay payments.

Meanwhile, the FY 2017 Legislative Affairs bill could be the debut of the new House standard operating procedure of considering appropriations bills under a structured rule, rather than the traditional open rule. The traditional open rule having caused significant meltdown of the FY 2017 E&W bill before the break.

 

Interesting Week Ahead

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The House and Senate return to work this week, including former Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz.

The Senate will try for the third time on Monday to advance its $37.5 billion fiscal 2017 Energy-Water appropriations bill, but there is no indication that leaders will find the 60 votes needed to break the logjam caused by the threat of an amendment related to the Iranian nuclear development deal. Previously, President Obama threatened to veto the bill over an amendment proposed by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would bar funding for the U.S. to buy so-called heavy water from Iran. Conversely, the Republican-derided Iran Nuclear Deal requires Iran to export the water, which is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production. Without a plan forward, the bill looks to stall out just as it has previously. Senate Republican leadership has suggested allowing Senator Cotton to hold a vote on the amendment as a separate measure, but it is unclear if Senate Democrats are open to the idea. 

Meanwhile, the House will turn its attention to opioid abuse by focusing on two bills (H.R. 5046 – Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016 and S. 524 – Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016) designed to give relief to American local communities dealing with the spike of opioid abuse. Additionally, the House will gear up for consideration of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week. The NDAA is the annual authorization bill determines the agencies responsible for our nation’s defense, establishes funding levels, and sets the policies under which money will be spent.

With less than 50 legislative days left before October 1, which is the statutorily mandated dated start of the federal fiscal year, the likelihood of the Congress considering all 12 of the standing appropriations bills continues to shrink. A continuing resolution is all but assured in September before Congress recesses for the election.

Congress Is Back!

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After a one week recess to enjoy Columbus Day, Congress is back in session — the Senate will convene Monday and the House will be back Tuesday. The Senate is back and will be focused on considering S2146, the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act. It’s a bit looser on the House-side, which will be considering a series of noncontroversial measures and HR 1937, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act. Meanwhile, the most exciting thing happening in the House, and in DC as a whole, is whether Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) will or won’t run for Speaker to replace John Boehner (R-OH) and former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies on Benghazi Thursday.

It truly is decision time for Paul Ryan, not just because Boehner has announced that he plans to leave Congress in 10 days…Ryan needs to make up his mind as to whether he will seek the Speakership or get out of the way and let the Republican party find another candidate.  If Ryan does not run, it is doubtful that the Speaker election will be wrapped up by Oct. 30, when Boehner planned to leave Congress. Boehner, who has pledged to remain in place until a new Speaker is chosen, could be forced to stay put and deal with thorny budget issues and raising the debt ceiling as a lame-duck Speaker…Not willing to leave his party in the lurch, Boehner has said he is willing to stay for some of November but does not expect to be in Congress come Thanksgiving.

Regardless of what Ryan decides, Boehner will stay until Republicans pick a new leader and he wants to set a date for the internal party election this week. The House GOP conference will spend several hours over the next three days behind closed doors, trying to settle on a strategy to avoid a default on the national debt, which is set to expire in early November, and chart a path for their party.

And this Speaker race is having serious implications on the debt and budget negotiations. Republicans are demanding changes to entitlement programs, a request that’s already been rejected by Democrats. Democrats want boosts in domestic spending without painful cuts, a nonstarter for the GOP. Meanwhile, there’s no House speaker scheduled to serve past October, which puts Senate Leadership, namely Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in a tough negotiating place with congressional Democrats and the White House on what exactly can get done and be passed all with little agreement in sight.

On Thursday, former Secretary of State Clinton squares off with the House Select Committee on Benghazi in what will arguably the highest-profile hearing of the year. It should be combative and explosive.