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Category: Congressional To Do

DHS Funding Passes House

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Today, the House passed the FY2015 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In what has been a protracted standoff between the House, the Senate and the Administration, the House passed a clean bill, meaning it was free of any policy riders on immigration that the House GOP had previously attached to similar measures.

This ends a three month standoff between Congress and the Administration on the President’s recent executive order to shield approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. In December, Congressional Republicans decided to pass all the FY15 appropriations bills, but for the DHS bill, in an effort to curb the President’s administrative actions, which the House GOP considers unconstitutional. The Department has been funded under a continuing resolution that expired at the end of February.

In January, the House had passed the DHS bill with restrictive funding language essentially curtailing what the Republican’s considered the Administration’s ability to follow through on the executive order. The DHS bill with the policy riders became impossible to pass through the Senate, as Senate Democrats remained unified against the riders and refused to pass anything but a stand alone bill.

Late last week, the House and Senate had to scramble to pass a short-term, one-week extension on DHS funding. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed a clean bill, which was sent to the House for consideration today.

The measure passed 257-167, with 182 Democrats and 75 Republicans voting to beat a Friday midnight deadline for DHS funding to expire. Voting against the measure were 167 Republicans, many in protest to the lack of language to block Obama’s immigration policies.

The bill now heads to the President for his signature.

New Plan for Homeland Security Appropriations Bill

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For the fourth time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was unable evening to call up a $39.7 billion House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill on Monday evening amid united Democratic opposition to provisions blocking recent executive action on immigration riders.

Following the failure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to consider a standalone bill narrowly targeting the President’s 2014 Executive Order and sparing the Administration’s 2012 action aimed only at certain young immigrants. It’s the Republican leader’s first step in trying to disentangle the immigration fight from a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

At present, it looks like the the Senate may have no choice now but to fund the agency on a short-term basis. The move towards disentanglement is designed to sway a small number of Democratic Senators towards moving the bill, while also avoiding a shut down of the security agency. Further, it avoids a shutdown of the agency and the political blame that the Republicans would face (and fear similar to what happened with the last shut down) if DHS is shut down.

If funding does lapse, there would be 30,000 furloughs while approximately 75 to 80 percent of DHS employees would have to work without pay. Historically, Congress has given essential workers back pay for the duration of a funding lapse, but such funding is certainly not guaranteed. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson warned Congress that a stopgap measure would also have consequences, including delayed improvements to border security and delayed state and local aid.

The continuing resolution funding for DHS expires on Friday.

 

Senate Considers Reducing Red Tape for Colleges

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Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on smarter federal regulations for colleges and universities. In November of 2013, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) appointed the Task Force on Federal Regulation of Higher Education. Sixteen college presidents and CEOs were charged with reviewing Education Department regulations and reporting requirements for the country’s 6,000 institutions.

The report, which was sponsored by the American Council on Education, was released last week. It acknowledges the importance of federal regulation in ensuring institutional accountability. Overall, the report states that “reporting requirements that have an excessive reach, or that are unnecessarily costly and difficult to implement — or worse still, that hinder student access to college and drive costs up — are counterproductive.” Areas of concern include institutional accreditation, uniform definitions of Clery crimes and verification of student eligibility for financial aid, among other issues.

With reauthorization of the Higher Education Act on the horizon, the task force’s report asks policymakers to follow a series of “guiding principles” to govern the ED’s development, implementation and enforcement of regulations. Among the recommendations: Rules should be relevant, clear and purposeful, and their costs and burdens should be accurately estimated. Penalties for violations should be appropriate. And the department should “take all necessary steps to facilitate compliance” on the part of institutions.

The issue has turned into a hot button one and multiple organizations have come out opposing the report.

 

Snow Day!

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SNOW DAY!

Capitol Dome in Snow, Architect of the Capitol

The federal government is closed today as DC deals with a storm that has impacted the east coast from Atlanta to Boston. Winter storm warnings were in effect for 17 states, and the District remains under a warning until noon today. The Washington, DC metro area is expected to enjoy a balmy 32 degree high and snow totals ranging from 4 to 10 inches. Most neighborhoods within the beltway experienced 4 to 6 inches.

The House and Senate are in recess this week for President’s Day, so no action is expected on the Hill.  Normal business for federal agencies is expected to resume tomorrow as the District shovels out today.

Expect immigration and the Obama Executive Order to be a hot topic in the next few weeks. Last night, federal Texas judge Judge Andrew Hanen, a George W. Bush appointee, blocked the controversial Executive Order. Judge Hanen said there was sufficient merit to the case to suspend the actions while the case goes forward. The Administration is expected to appeal the ruling. Read more at the AP.

House Passes NASA Reauthorization

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Today, the House of Representatives yesterday approved HR 810, the NASA Authorization Act of 2015 as a noncontroversial measure under suspension of the rules. The bill is identical to the bipartisan bill that passed the House last year by a vote of 401-2 but failed to be considered in the Senate.

It remains uncertain if the Senate will consider the bill.