Spending Bill Clears House, Ready To Be Signed

Posted on February 15, 2019

Following the Senate’s lead, the House cleared last night H.J. Res. 31, the measure that would keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year (read the explanatory statement for the legislation here). The House vote was 300 – 128.

As noted yesterday, after President Trump signs the measure later this morning, he is expected to declare a national emergency in an attempt to find additional sources of funding for a wall along the Southern border. Multiple court challenges are expected to such a move.

Funding Bill Includes Increases

Posted on February 14, 2019

An initial review of the conference report shows that it contains increases for a number of agencies and accounts of interest to UW.

For example, the bill would fund NSF at $8.075 billion, an increase of $308 million above the FY2018 level. Wtihin NSF, the bill would fund:

Research and Related Activities at $6.52 billion
Education and Human Resources at $910 million
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction at $295.7 million

With respect to NASA, the bill would appropriate $6.91 billion to the Science Mission Directorate while it would support the Space Technology Directorate at $926.9 million. The Aeronautics Directorate would receive $725 million under this bill.

We will provide additional updates.

Trump to Sign Spending Bill, Then Declare National Emergency

Posted on February 14, 2019

Late this afternoon, the Senate cleared by a vote of 83 to 16 the spending package that would fund the entire government for the rest of the fiscal year (the text of the conference report is available here). The Senate moved to vote on the bill even as the Members were unclear as to whether the President would actually sign it.

To end the drama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared on the Senate floor to announce that President Trump would sign the bill, which does not contain the $5.7 billion requested by the President for a concrete wall. While declaring that the bill would be signed by the President, McConnell also added that President Trump also plans to declare a national emergency, in an attempt to find additional ways to construct the wall. A number of Republicans in both chambers of Congress have expressed reservations about such a move, as they are concerned that a future Democratic president might declare a national emergency for other issues, such as gun violence or climate change. If and when a national emergency is declared, various lawsuits are expected to be filed, challenging that declaration.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later this evening.

Read more about the developments here, here, and here.

We will provide details from the conference report shortly.

As Shutdown Reaches 21 Days, National Emergency Declaration Being Considered

Posted on January 11, 2019

As the partial government reaches its 21st day, matching the longest shutdown, there is still no compromise between the White House and Congressional Democrats in sight. With that as the current situation, President Trump has stated on numerous occasions that he has the legal authority to declare a “national emergency” to build a physical barrier along the Southern border.

The White House is considering several options with respect to finding funds for the wall, such as trying to use funds that had been designated to deal with other disasters, such as the California wildfires and the hurricanes along the East Coast in 2018, and using funds dedicated to military construction projects.

Even a declaration of a national emergency does not mean that the Administration would be able to build a wall quickly, or if at all. A number of Republicans have publicly cautioned against such a move. In addition, legal challenges will most likely be made to the declaration, with the outcomes uncertain at this point.

Additional information about the this fight is available here, here, and here.

While all of this is playing out politically, today is payday for those federal employees and contractors impacted by the shutdown. The furloughed workers will not be paid today. Read more about the situation impacting employees here.

With Pelosi as Speaker, New House Seeks to Open Government

Posted on January 4, 2019

As expected, the 116th House of Representatives elected yesterday Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as the new Speaker of the House. She returns to the past that she once held.

Also as expected, the Democratically-controlled House a package of measures that would reopen the government: the first combined six of the seven unsigned appropriations bills and would fund the agencies in those bills through the rest of the year, while the second measure would reopen the Department of Homeland Security, with no additional funding for the wall, through February 8. The new House leadership has emphasized that the language approved by the House is the exact same language that was approved by the Republican-controlled Senate before the holidays in order to avoid the partial shutdown before President Trump announced that he would not sign it.

While the House was working on the funding package, both the White House and the Senate Majority Leader reiterated their opposition to the House bill.

With the shutdown now in its 14th day, leaders from both houses and both sides of the aisle are scheduled to meet with the President once again later today.

Read more about the situation here, here, here, and here.