Today, the White House issued a veto threat on two recently marked up House Appropriations bills. HR 2028 — Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 and HR 2029 – Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016.
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the FY16 Energy and Water Appropriations bill because it “drastically underfunds critical investments.” Republicans are developing FY16 spending bills under the 2011 Budget Control Act’s sequester-reduced spending caps but are providing extra funds for defense through the alternative account. In its statement, the White House also threatened to veto “any other legislation that implements the current Republican budget framework”; it has proposed rolling back sequestration for both defense and non-defense programs.
While a veto threat will not keep the House from considering the measures, it does complicate the funding bills’ futures. The House is expected to consider the FY16 Energy and Water Appropriations legislation for the bulk of the week.
Today, the full House Science Committee marked up HR 1806, the America COMPETES Reauthorization bill, which the House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith introduced late last week. Thirty four amendments were offered for consideration over the five hour mark up, and these amendments largely fell along party lines. Several controversial amendments passed, while amendements to restore certain directorate’s funding or amend climate change provisions.
Highlights of some amendments considered include:
An amendment offered by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) to amend the bill and add “human activity impacts climate change” to the DOE Science mission.
An amendment offered by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to officially authorize the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) program, which passed.
An amendment offered by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to direct and broaden DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences. which passed.
An amendment offered by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici to have a report on STEAM education, which failed.
The amended bill was passed out of committee by a vote of 19-16, which was a party line vote. The next step for the bill is consideration by the full House. While there has been no definite timeline stated by House leadership as to consideration of HR 1806, it is expected to be considered soon.
The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the bill and its progress.
Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in the markup of the Every Child Succeeds Act.
In a rare example of legislating and bipartisanship, the HELP Committee unanimously passed its rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization bill this afternoon. The bill, called Every Child Succeeds, includes historically toxic education topics like testing and school performance ratings. The bill has been so toxic that the last three Congresses have tried and failed to rewrite it. The House had to pull the measure from the House Floor earlier this year after full consideration because of lack of support for final passage.
In contrast, the bipartisan legislation, cowritten by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, figuratively flew through the committee. It was unveiled last week and considered Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
In contrast, the 2013 consideration of legislation to reauthorize these programs, with a committee largely comprised of the same group of Senators, was mired in partisan gridlock, dozens of amendments and two long days of fighting. What ultimately passed on June 12, 2013 was by a party-line vote of 12-10. All Democrats on the committee approved the bill and all Republicans opposed it.
Conversely, today, every member of the committee, Republican and Democrat, including the polarizing Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Tim Scott (R-NC), Al Franken (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), all lined up their support behind the committee chairs and the legislation. The overall tone to the whole process between Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray has been one of cooperation and compromise.
Senator Alexander hopes the Senate] can take up the measure before the Memorial Day recess.
While passing the Senate seems all but assured, the Senate version is vastly different than the House measure. What, if anything, will pass the House remains to be seen.
The House Science Committee Republicans released their version of the America COMPETES reauthorization legislation. The COMPETES bill reauthorizes major science programs including then entirety of the National Science Foundation, the science programs within the Department of Energy, and NIST.
House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) released the House Republican budget draft today, which in recent years has been largely a political document. The House Democrats are expected to release a competing draft soon. The federal budget, while it does not become law, does have to pass both chambers of Congress and will guide the House and Senate on federal spending. In addition, the budget typically charges the respective legislative bodies on sweeping policy initiatives, such as tax reform, which is what then-Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) suggested last year. This year, Chairman Price includes the repeal of Dodd-Frank and Obamacare, proposes a premium support system for Medicare, asks for a bipartisan study and report to Congress on the problems facing the Social Security program, and would eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Additionally, the final budget will guide the respective House and Senate Appropriations Committees on how much funding is available to begin work on the 12 annual appropriations bills.
The details are not yet clear, but at first blush, the bill would aim to balance the budget in nine years and create a surplus by 2025. The measure would also cut $5.5 trillion over the next decade. This would be achieved by eliminating duplicative programs and eliminating programs within agencies that are not “core functions” of the federal government. Examples of these duplicative, beyond the scope or “corporate welfare” programs cited include, job training programs, and eliminating the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Program and Trade Promotion Activities at the International Trade Administration.
Redundancies and misuse of tax dollars called out include:
There are 92 different anti-poverty programs.
There are 17 food aid programs.
There are 22 housing assistance programs
An Inspector General report revealed that employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are taking paid leave after work-related violations.
The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, two of the most important agencies in our national security apparatus, currently spend part of their budget studying climate change.
For higher education, the legislation proposes a new framework to use “federal dollars more efficiently” in higher education — but details on what that framework would be are thin. Pell grant awards would both be capped for next decade and limited to the neediest borrowers.
The bill would also replace or prevent Sequester cuts — although how is unclear. The measure would keeping the 2011 budget ceilings, and would impose a $1.017 trillion ceiling on spending in the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1. Domestic discretionary programs would get $493 billion, with $523 billion allotted for the Pentagon’s base budget. The GOP budget ignores Obama’s request for $74 billion in additional spending.
Already, the GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee has been less than committal to the measure. It remains to be seen if the measure will enjoy unified Republican support.
