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Category: Defense

OMB Director Mulvaney Pushing for Sanctuary City Language in FY2017

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OMB Director Mick Mulvaney is pushing House lawmakers to include language in the FY2017 omnibus appropriations bill to restrict federal funding grants for cities that do not enforce federal immigration policies. The goal is to bring the House Freedom Caucus on board with a government funding bill.

Such a provision, known as a rider, would put the already delicate negotiations under further strain, as Congressional Republicans already struggle to deal with the Administration’s supplemental request to begin building a border wall. A rider prohibiting federal funds from going to sanctuary cities would guarantee zero Democratic support.  

Despite recent changes to the Senate rules regarding confirming Supreme Court Justices, the Senate will need 60 votes to move forward with any appropriations bill and Senate Republicans are only 52 votes. 

When Congress returns on April 25th from its two-week recess for Passover and Easter, it will have 4 legislative days to pass some vehicle (an omnibus or another CR) for FY2017 funding or risk a shutdown.

Stay tuned.

Trump Requests Additional Funding for FY2017

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Today, the Administration sent a supplemental appropriations request to Congress asking for an additional $30 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) to rebuild the U.S. Armed Forces and accelerate the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and an additional $3 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for urgent border protection activities. For DOD, $5 billion would go into the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which is not subject to sequester budget limits.

The Administration proposes the remainder, $18 billion, to come from unspecified nondefense discretionary spending.

Federal Relations is tracking this issue.

House Passes FY2017 DOD Approps Bill

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Today, the House voted 371 to 48 to pass HR 1301, the FY2017 Defense Department spending measure.

The legislation replaces the continuing resolution  for the Pentagon and falls well within the budget control law’s caps on overall defense spending with a total of $577.9 billion. That is is below the sequester levels may allow it to move through both chambers without too much opposition. The measure includes $61.8 billion for overseas operations, an account that is not limited by law.

Trump to Address Congress Tonight, Senate Approves Ross, and Zinke Up

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Last night, the Senate confirmed another Cabinet nominee for Trump as it voted 72-27 to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary.

Ross is a 79-year-old businessman who made his fortune by turning around companies in distressed industries like textiles and steel and is expected to play a leading role in trade policy.

The Senate now turns to Interior Secretary nominee, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT). Out of the 15 primary federal department chiefs, Zinke looks like he will soon become the 11th Cabinet member confirmed. The Zinke nomination is expected to take the maximum amount of time possible similar to nearly every other Trump nominee.

Trump Address Congress, 

Meanwhile, it’s a little over a month into his new Administration and President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress for the first time tonight at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific. While not an official State of the Union address, the new president’s first address to Congress traditionally has been a tone setting speech. Expect a speech from Trump that will offer his vision for the country, including his policy priorities, but will not likely be heavy on details.

The While House has previewed the speech and expect Trump to hit on such topics as: the coming Presidential Budget Request (PBR); recent antisemitic attacks; the White House and the media, including CNN and false reporting; Obamacare repeal and replacement; and an extreme vetting Executive Order (expected Wednesday).

See the White House preview here. 

Meanwhile, the White House has said that the PBR will be previewed March 16th with something akin to a skinny budget, but the complete PBR will not be released until mid-May. The OMB, with newly approved OMB Director Mulvaney, began circulating top line numbers to agencies yesterday in preparation for a full budget preview and request.  As those documents were circulating, the Trump PBR will call for $603 billion in military spending, which is a 2% boost from current levels. That sum would also represent a $54 billion, or 10%, increase over budget caps set in law. Additionally, the plans has no cuts coming from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The increase would come from the non discretionary defense portions of the budget.

Before the FY2018 PRB is released, the Trump Administration is expected to ask Congress for a $30 billion in supplemental defense spending via the Overseas Contingency Operations account that is not subject to the spending caps. It’s a move that’s been used by Congress previously. 

More Movement Seen on Senior Administration Officials Front

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Late Monday, recently appointed White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned from his post. The resignation was prompted by what he shared with Vice President Pence about his call with the Russian ambassador to the United States almost immediately following the Presidential election in November.

Flynn had reportedly told Pence that he did not discuss with the ambassador the sanctions levied against Russia by the Obama Administration. The Vice President then publicly supported Flynn’s claim. It was revealed late last week that the subject of the sanctions may have been discussed during the call between Flynn and the ambassador.

On the Cabinet front, Steve Mnuchin, a long-time executive at Goldman Sachs, was confirmed by the Senate mostly along party lines on Monday as the Treasury Secretary. Also on Monday, David Shulkin was confirmed unanimously by the Senate to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2015, Shulkin was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to head the Veterans Health Administration.

A number of other Cabinet confirmations remain, including those for Secretary of Department of Labor and Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.