Earlier this afternoon, the House cleared by a vote of 227 to 203 the final version of the tax reform legislation. H. R. 1 is now headed to the Senate.
In the end, 12 Republicans joined 191 Democrats in opposing the bill.
Category: 115th Congress
House Releases $81 Billion Supplemental
Totaling $81 billion, the supplemental spending bill (HR 4667) released Monday evening is $37 billion more than the $44 billion the Trump Administration requested in mid-November. As supplemental appropriations, the money is designated as emergency spending, which does not require offsets under congressional budget rules. The White House included a list of offsets, which can be found here.
If approved as is, this latest disaster aid bill would bring the emergency spending total to $132.75 billion this year — significantly surpassing the $60 billion spent in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the $120 billion appropriated after Hurricane Katrina.
The bill includes:
- $27.6 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency
- $26.1 billion for Community Development Block Grants for disaster recovery
- $12.1 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers
- $3.8 billion for agriculture recovery
- $2.9 billion to assist schools in affected areas to rebuild and refurbish
- $1.6 billion for the Small Business Administration disaster loan program
- $1.5 billion to repair military facilities
- $1.4 billion for damages to federal highways
- $600 million in economic development grants
The bill includes language that would allow individuals who have lost property to wildfires to deduct damage costs on their taxes, would remove the penalty for withdrawing money from a retirement account and would incentivize donations to people and regions rebuilding after wildfires.
House leadership has not yet announced whether the supplemental aid package will be added to the stopgap spending bill (H J Res 124) heading to the House Rules Committee on today and the House floor after that.
Current stopgap funding expires Dec. 22.
House Committee Clears HEA Reauthorization Bill
In a marathon markup session that lasted well into the evening, the House Education and the Workforce Committee cleared yesterday the PROSPER Act (H.R. 4508), its version of the bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), by a vote 23 to 17. A copy of the bill is available here.
During the session, approximately 60 amendments were considered. A write-up of the markup session is available here.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has not yet moved its version of the HEA reauthorization bill.
Shutdown Averted… For Now
Both chambers of Congress cleared yesterday another short-term spending package that would keep the government funded through December 22. The old spending agreement ends at midnight Saturday.
Although the government remains funded for another two weeks, there still is no agreement on many of the unresolved issues that will need to be addressed before a final package for FY2018 can be adopted. These include questions about whether to break the budget caps, and if so, how much and for which sets of programs. Questions also remain on whether or how to address the DACA/”Dreamers” situation, which must be dealt with by March.
It appears at this point that another short-term extension will be needed beyond the 22nd.
House Considering Two-Week Spending Extension
The House is currently debating a measure to keep the federal government open for another two weeks. The current short-term package expires after tomorrow and another extension is needed by then to prevent large parts of the government from shutting down. The two-week extension, through December 22, would buy negotiators additional time to reach an agreement on a final funding package for FY2018, which started October 1.
A number of issues remain unresolved with respect to FY2018 spending, such as: the lack of an agreement on the overall amount of funding that will be available for the fiscal year; whether another short-term extension will be needed after the 22nd; the lack of an agreement on how much, or whether, to spend more on both domestic and defense discretionary programs; and, whether an increase in spending would only be for defense program.