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Category: 2019 UW Federal Agenda

2nd CR Teed Up

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The House is scheduled to take up a second continuing resolution (CR) later today that would keep the federal government funded past midnight Friday morning, when the current CR expires. It must be passed and signed into law by Thursday night to avoid a shutdown.

The new CR would extend current funding for all federal agencies through Dec. 20 or just before the scheduled Christmas recess. in addition, the measure would temporarily extend three Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions through March 20, 2020, and take the provisions out of play for the resolution of FY2020. The measure would also extend numerous expiring health care programs that were temporarily renewed in the most recent stopgap law, such as funding for community health centers and teaching hospitals, as well other miscellaneous programs ranging from the higher education reauthorization law to the Export-Import Bank.

The measure is expected to pass both the House and Senate, but the White House has been a bit of an unknown. However, Administration officials have indicated that the President will likely sign the CR if it reached his desk.

Don’t Forget, the Current CR Expires Next Week

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While a large swath of Washington is preoccupied with the public impeachment hearings, which started earlier today, senior appropriators met yesterday to figure out a path forward on how to keep the government open past next Thursday.  The current continuing resolution, which has kept the federal government open since October 1, expires at midnight, November 22.

It appears that at least the top appropriators– in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle– have agreed to push for a second CR that would last through December 20.  The assumption is that such an agreement would buy Congress enough time pull together packages of spending bills for the rest of FY2020 before adjourning for the year.  the wildcard is the Trump White House and its insistence on funding for a border wall as well as the possible impact of impeachment on spending negotiations.

At the end of the day, funding for most parts of the government would run out next Friday without any further action by Congress and the White House.  Read more about the situation here.

One Step At A Time

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After having agreed to take it up late last week, the Senate passed this afternoon a four-bill appropriations package by a vote of 84 – 9.  The bundle, a Senate substitute to a House-passed bill, includes the following FY2020 funding bills:  Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; Interior; and Transportation – Housing and Urban Development.  This represents the first four spending bills passed by the Senate for the current fiscal year, which started October 1.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped that the passage of the first bundle would led to momentum to bring up a second package of bills that would include, among others, the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures.  The Democrats have continuously objected to the two bills moving because of the DOD funds that would be used to build a Southern wall and fights over language on abortion in and the perceived lack of enough funding for the Labor-HHS bill.  After the Senate agreed to the first four bills, it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to get cloture to move forward on the second set of bills.  The vote was 51 -41.

Although the Senate has now passed four appropriations bills, there still is no agreement between the two chambers on how much funding is available overall for FY2020.  The top line must be agreed to first before compromises on individual bills can be reached.

 

HEA Bill Finally Clears Committee

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The House Education and Labor Committee returned this morning for a third day of markup to finally approve the bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).  It was reported out by a vote of 28 to 22.  Approximately five dozen amendments were considered during the consideration of the legislation.

The committee Democrats issued the following press release after the committee passage.  Not surprisingly, the committee Republicans had a different take on the HEA measure.

The texts of the amendments offered during the markup are available here.

Even though the bill has emerged from committee, if and when it moves to the floor for consideration by the full House remains uncertain.

House Committee Still Working on HEA

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Having lasted two days so far, the House Education and Labor Committee is still in the process of marking up the Democratic version of a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).  The committee is currently in recess, allowing members to vote on bills being considered on the floor.

By the time the session concludes, the committee will have entertained approximately 60 amendments.

We will follow up with further details after the conclusion of the markup.