Trump Issues Memos on TPP, Federal Hiring Freeze, and US Foreign Aid

Posted on January 23, 2017January 27, 2017

President Donald Trump signed three presidential memos on Monday freezing federal hiring, withdrawing the US from the TPP, and banning US foreign aid from performing or promoting abortions.

First, President Donald Trump moved Monday to make good on a campaign promise to shrink the size of the federal government, issuing a memo to freeze federal hiring. The military was exempted from the memo’s constraints.

Second, President Trump issued a memo to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The move fulfills one of Trump’s signature campaign pledges to get out of the sweeping 12-nation trade deal, which he once called “a rape of our country” and said would hurt US jobs.

Third, President Trump issued a memo that calls for the reinstatement of a policy to prevent the recipients of American foreign aid from performing or promoting abortions. The action comes the day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The memo would prohibit NGOs that receive federal funding – including health care providers or organizations – from providing or promoting abortion or from advocating for abortion laws abroad.

On Friday, immediately following President Trump’s inauguration, Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Prebus, issued a Memoranda instructing the heads of federal departments and agencies to stop advancing regulations until Trump appointees are able to review them. The memo was issued by Priebus is typical when a new party takes the White House. The memo is in many ways identical to one that then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sent on Jan. 20, 2009.

Priebus’ memo made exceptions for emergency situations and other urgent health, safety, financial or national security matters allowed by the Office of Management and Budget. It also makes exceptions for regulations implemented to meet a statutory or judicial deadline.

Impacts from that freeze are far reaching and include:

The Housing and Urban Development Department suspended the mortgage insurance premium rate reduction scheduled to take effect later this month.
The Education Department rule to forgive student loans of borrowers if they were defrauded by their college could be delayed. The rule was finalized in October but would not go into effect until July. The department has also not finalized a proposed rule meant to increase state officials’ oversight of online college programs within their state. The department estimated the rule would affect 5.5 million students.
The Labor Department’s contentious fiduciary rule, opposed by Republicans, has been finalized but will not go into effect until April. It could be blocked by the memo. The rule would require retirement investment advisers to put the best interests of their clients before their own interests.
USDA has stalled a final rule published Thursday setting animal welfare standards for poultry and livestock. It was scheduled to take effect March 20, with portions phased in through 2018. The rule is meant to enable the Agriculture Department to certify products as organic. The proposal has divided the poultry industry, with some producers calling the requirements excessive and unnecessary.

Domestic Policy Council, Staff Announcements

Posted on January 5, 2017

Trump has announced his Domestic Policy Team.

Andrew Bremberg, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council — Andrew Bremberg worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2001 to 2009, including serving as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Health and Science. He later served as Policy Advisor and Counsel on Nominations for Senator Mitch McConnell. He worked as the Policy Director for the 2016 Republican Party Platform. He now works in a lead policy and administrative role on the Presidential Transition Team. Mr. Bremberg received a J.D. from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and a B.A. from the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Paul Winfree, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Director of Budget Policy — Paul Winfree was Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, the Center for Data Analysis and the Richard F. Aster Research Fellow, all at The Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage, Mr. Winfree was the Director of Income Security on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget. He has a Master of Science degree in economics and economic history from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from George Mason University.

Katy Talento, Healthcare Policy — Katy Talento, an infectious disease epidemiologist with nearly 20 years of experience in public health and health policy, as well as government oversight and investigations and program evaluation, served on the campaign since July 2016. Ms. Talento has spent 12 years in the U.S. Senate, working for five Senators and two committees. A graduate of Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Virginia, she has also worked in the field on disease control programs in the U.S. and in Africa.

Ja’Ron Smith, Urban Affairs and Revitalization — Ja’Ron K. Smith has served as a Congressional staff member for nearly a decade. Smith served the House Republican Conference legislative staff under then-Chairman Mike Pence prior to joining the Republican Study Committee to serve on the professional policy staff under Congressman Jim Jordan. He later served as Economic Advisor to Senator Tim Scott and currently works as the Director of External Affairs for Generation Opportunity. Mr. Smith was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a double graduate of Howard University with a BBA in Finance and a Masters in Divinity.

Rob Goad, Education Policy — Rob Goad currently serves on the Presidential Transition as the education lead for the implementation of the President-elect’s education policy agenda. Prior to developing education policy for the President-elect’s successful campaign, Mr. Goad served as a Senior Policy Advisor to House Policy Committee Chair Luke Messer focusing on education issues. He also played a pivotal role advancing school choice policies as Director of the Congressional School Choice Caucus. Mr. Goad received a bachelor’s degree in political science at Indiana University.

John Zadrozny, Justice and Homeland Security Policy — John Zadrozny has worked for the past six years on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for Senator Ted Cruz. Prior to working on Capitol Hill, he served in the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of State. Mr. Zadrozny has a J.D. from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. in History from Fordham University in Bronx, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Zina Bash, Regulatory Reform, Legal and Immigration Policy — Zina Bash has held a variety of positions in business, law and government, and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Operations and Business Development at Doctors’ Hospital at Renaissance. Her previous positions include Deputy Director of Policy and Communications for Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign and Senior Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in Senator John Cornyn’s office. Ms. Bash also practiced law as an appellate attorney at international law firm Gibson Dunn, & Crutcher LLP. Fluent in Spanish as a native speaker, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.B.A. from Wharton Business School. Ms. Bash also served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Peter J. White, Senior Policy Analyst — Peter White received his J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law and has worked at the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. Most recently, Mr. White served as Legislative Counsel for Congressman Mo Brooks. Licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Mr. White is an active member of the Federalist Society and performs pro bono legal work for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Additionally, the following team members are joining the Office of the Senior Advisor to the President for Policy, and will help to develop all policy and administer all functions underneath the umbrella of the Office, such as the formulation of a pro-worker agenda — including support for affordable childcare and family initiatives.

Office of the Senior Advisor to the President for Policy, Staff Announcements:

Carlos Diaz-Rosillo, Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination — Carlos Diaz-Rosillo brings a wealth of experience on presidential power, administrative action, executive leadership and the policymaking and executive action process to this key role. Mr. Diaz-Rosillo has been serving on the President-elect’s Transition Team as Policy Implementation Executive Authority Advisor and White House Lead. He is fluent in Spanish, and graduated summa cum laude with degrees in International Relations (B.A.) and Civil Engineering (B.S.C.E) from Tufts University and Public Policy (M.P.P) and Government (A.M., PhD) from Harvard University, where he has been a member of the faculty of government for more than eight years.

Vince Haley, Advisor for Policy, Strategy and Speechwriting — Vince Haley is a longtime associate of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He served as policy director and later campaign manager of Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. Haley holds an undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary, a law and Master’s degree from the University of Virginia, and a Master’s of law from the College of Europe. During the President-elect’s successful campaign, Mr. Haley developed ethics reform policies.

Ross Worthington, Advisor for Policy, Strategy and Speechwriting — Ross Worthington was a longtime aide to former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He served as research director for Gingrich, deputy communications director for Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign and later as Gingrich’s primary writer. He is a graduate of Brown University, where he concentrated in Political Theory. During the campaign, Mr. Worthington, together with Mr. Vince Haley, worked to formulate and communicate policies that advanced the Trump agenda.

Ryan Jarmula, Advisor for Policy Development and Speechwriting — Ryan Jarmula served as a member of Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s staff for a number of years. As a member of then-Congressman Pence’s Capitol Hill office, he handled a variety of issues including foreign affairs, and later served Pence in his capacity as Governor of the State of Indiana as Policy Director for Veterans Affairs and most recently as Speechwriter. During the campaign, Mr. Jarmula worked on Stephen Miller’s staff and had an active role in policy development. Mr. Jarmula is a graduate of Indiana University and completed his B.A. while majoring in political science in 2007.

Robert Gabriel, Special Assistant to the Senior Advisor — Robert Gabriel served as policy advisor on the President-elect’s campaign and assisted the National Policy Director in policy development, speechwriting functions, and staff management. He received a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in Policy from New York University.

White House Issues Veto Threat on House FY 17 Interior Approps Bill

Posted on July 12, 2016July 15, 2016

Today, the White House issued (another) veto threat via a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) about the House’s FY 2017 Interior appropriations bill. The White House said the bill underfunds core Department of the Interior (DOI) programs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) operating budget, which supports nationwide protection of human health, and vital air, water and land resources. The funding levels in the bill would significantly hamper investments that reduce future costs to taxpayers by facilitating increased energy development, ensuring adequate levels of cybersecurity, and maintaining operations, facilities and infrastructure in national parks, refuges, forests, public lands, and Indian Country.

The House plans on considering the measure on the Floor this week.

Read the SAP here.

Memorial Day Recess

Posted on May 31, 2016

The House and Senate are out this week as they head home to celebrate Memorial Day with a week-long recess. When they return, the Senate will resume consideration on its version of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and the House will begin regrouping on how to proceed with appropriations after the meltdown of the FY 2017 E&W bill last week.

House FY2017 CJS Mark Up Tuesday Morning

Posted on May 23, 2016May 24, 2016

The full House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY2017 CJS bill tomorrow at 10:30am EST, more details can be found here.

The Committee Report is here, and the legislative text can be found here.

Overall, the legislation contains $56 billion in total discretionary funding, an increase of $279 million over FY2016 and $1.4 billion above the President’s request for these programs. Big bumps were given to Department of Justice programs, which received $29 billion, an increase of $347 million above the FY2016 enacted level including large bumps given to the FBI, DEA, ATF, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Within this funding, priority is given to critical activities that protect the safety, rights, and property of individuals and families across the nation. The bill includes $103 million for programs to help stem this abuse – the full amount recently authorized by the House-passed Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016. This includes funding for activities such as drug courts, treatment, and prescription drug monitoring.

Other highlights include:

National Science Foundation (NSF)

For NSF, the FY2017 bill would fund the NSF at $7.407 billion, $57 million less than FY2016 enacted. Under NSF, Research and Related Activities would receive $6.08 billion, a $46 million increase and Education and Human Resources would be level-funded at $880 million.

Unlike the House’s FY2016 CJS mark, there is no language on funding levels for specific directorates.
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) would receive $87.1 million, a $113 million decrease from the FY2016 enacted amount.

Included in the committee report is language of note on both Peer Review and Grant Abstracts.

“Peer review.—The Committee has long been supportive of NSF’s peer review process to identify and recommend funding for scientifically meritorious research. NSF’s ability to fund cutting-edge research helps keep the United States at the forefront of research across all scientific disciplines, which in turn builds the technological capabilities that underpin economic growth and prosperity.”

“Abstracts.—The Committee directs NSF to continue its efforts to ensure that award abstracts clearly explain in plain English the intent of the project and how the project meets both the intellectual merit and the broader impact review criterion. Improving the peer review process and project abstracts are critical to protecting NSF’s stellar scientific integrity. The abstracts serve as a public justification for NSF funding decisions by articulating how the project serves the national interest, consistent with the Foundation’s mission as established in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1861 et seq). The Committee believes that abstracts should explain how a project increases economic competitiveness in the United States; advances the health and welfare of the American public; develops an American STEM workforce, including computer science and information technology sectors, that are globally competitive; increases public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology in the United States; increases partnerships between academia and industry in the United States; supports the national defense of the United States; or promotes the progress of science for the United States.”

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

For NASA, the bill would provide $19.5 billion, a $223 million increase from the FY2016 enacted level. The Science Directorate would receive $5.597 billion, an increase of $8 million. Space Grant would be level-funded at $40 million. Aeronautics would receive $712 million, an increase of $72 million and Space Technology would receive $739 million, a $52 million increase.

National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The legislation contains $5.6 billion for NOAA, which is $185 million below the enacted level and $268 million below the President’s request. Funding is targeted to important priorities such as the National Weather Service, which receives $1.1 billion – $12 million above the President’s request.

The bill also includes full funding for the continuation of the current Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite program and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program to help maintain and improve weather forecasting to warn communities about potentially devastating natural disasters.

To make these investments, the bill reduces funding in lower-priority NOAA activities such as climate research, ocean services, and others.

Programs of note include:

National Ocean Service’s Integrated Ocean Observing System Regional Observations received $31.5 million, which is a $2 million increase.
The Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research’s Climate Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes account received $50 million, which is a $10 million cut from FY2016. That said, there is interesting language regarding this account included in the Committee report (see below).

Also included was language of note on Extramural Research, NMFS Cooperative Research, OAR’s Independent Analysis, OAR’s Weather and Air Chemistry Research, OAR’s Labs and Cooperative Institutes, and language on Ocean Acidification.

“Extramural research.—The Committee believes that NOAA benefits from collaboration with academia and the private sector through cooperative institutes and competitive research. These relationships build broad community engagement, leverage external funding for mission-oriented research, strengthen the science within NOAA, and advance scientific knowledge.”

NMFS

“Cooperative research.—The recommendation includes $12,000,000 within Fisheries Data Collections, Surveys and Assessments for cooperative research, which shall be used to support external, independent data collection and other research. The Committee expects that all funding provided shall be used for cooperative fisheries research and not for NOAA activities or administrative overhead costs. NOAA shall submit a report no later than 90 days after enactment of this Act listing all cooperative research grants funded in fiscal year 2016, to include the amount, the fishery, the type of information collected, and the expected uses for that data. The Committee is concerned that cooperative research is not ingested into fishery stock assessments in a timely manner. The report shall address NOAA procedures and timeframes for making use of this independent fisheries research.”

OAR

“Independent analysis.—NOAA is encouraged to increase funding for academia to perform independent climate model evaluation studies and to enable the production of atmospheric data sets from satellite observations for such studies. Satellite observations of the atmosphere provide information that is critical in the interpretation of Earth-based observations and in the evaluation and improvement of climate model simulations.”

“Weather and Air Chemistry Research.—The Committee includes $118,158,000 for Weather and Air Chemistry Research, an increase of $15,000,000 above fiscal year 2016, and encourages NOAA to continue research efforts that lead to near-term, affordable, and attainable advances in observational, computing, and modeling capabilities to deliver substantial improvements in weather forecasting for the protection of life and property. NOAA shall substantially accelerate the transition of its research to operations in ways easily adopted by the operational forecasting community.”

“Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes.—The Committee recognizes the important role that the coordinated NOAA Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes play in fulfilling NOAA’s Mission Goals and Strategic Plan. To continue to fulfill NOAA’s mission, NOAA should enhance its support of advanced monitoring and predictive modeling to explore deep water issues and their effect on the U.S. coastline. The Committee encourages NOAA to expand the role Cooperative Institutes play in fulfilling this role, and to consider how additional Cooperative Institutes, or consortia partners, could strengthen NOAA’s ability to support this monitoring and modeling.”

“Integrated Ocean Acidification Research.—The Committee encourages NOAA, in coordination with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, to implement a program to competitively award prizes under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719) to stimulate innovation to advance the understanding, research, or monitoring of ocean acidification or its impacts; or to develop management or adaptation options for responding to ocean acidification. In prize competitions, the Committee encourages NOAA to prioritize communities, environments, or industries that are in distress due to the impacts of ocean acidification.”

“Adaptation and mitigation for ocean acidification.—The Committee encourages NOAA to continue to develop ocean monitoring and modeling capabilities, as well as vulnerability assessments, necessary to support research on innovative methods to mitigate and adapt to ocean acidification, such as biological uptake and iron fertilization. As GAO noted in its 2014 report on ocean acidification, the Federal Government has yet to develop adaptation and mitigation strategies as required by the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2009. The Committee encourages NOAA to actively pursue the research necessary to develop these strategies.”