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Category: Legislation

Senate Introduces Budget Resolution

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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced the Senate Budget today, whihc differs in big ways from a House GOP blueprint introduced yesterday. Both aim to balance the budget (the Senate in 10 years, the House in nine) and both cut over $5 billion in spending (the Senate cuts $5.1 trillion and the House would cut $5.5 trillion).  It proposes an additional $236 billion in cuts to non defense discretionary spending from FY2017-FY2025 and it would leave the defense discretionary caps at the sequester levels.

Most importantly, and a point that goes directly to the contention in the House Republicans, the Senate GOP budget only provides $58 billion for a war funding account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund — much less than the $90 billion included in the House GOP budget. In a move to appease House defense hawks, the House Budget had a huge increase in the OCO, which is not subject to the Sequester caps. The budget resolution effectively draws a line in the sand over war funding by creating a point of order against raising Overseas Contingency Operations account funding above $58 billion next year. Points of order require 60 votes to pass. That means any move to boost the OCO funding would need the support of Senate Democrats. Obama has proposed $51 billion in war funds for the military.
As for policy directives, the Senate proposal includes reconciliation instructions for the Senate Finance and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees to each find no less than $1 billion of savings over 10 years to put toward deficit reduction by no later than July 31, 2015. It also creates a Deficit-Neutral Reserve Fund (DNRF), a budget gimmick that allows Committee chairs to break budget constraints and will not result in a budget point of order, for the HELP Committee to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).  The budget proposal also creates a DNRF for improvements in medical research, innovation and safety, among other health reforms.  The budget also calls for a DNRF for energy legislation, which could include reforms to research programs at the Department of Energy.
Similar to the House Republican Budget, the Senate budget would cut Pell — and cut $90 billion from the Pell grant program over 10 years. Additionally, the  proposal would set non-defense discretionary spending at $493 billion for 2016.
To read about the Senate Budget, click here. 
The Senate is marking up the budget Wednesday and Thursday, and it is expected that the full Senate will consider the proposal next week.

The Office of Federal Relations is currently monitoring the legislation and will make more information known as it becomes available.

Tyler Clementi Bill Reintroduced

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Today, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced the anti-harassment bill named for Tyler Clementi, the late Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide after being bullied over his sexual orientation.

The Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2015 requires colleges to establish policies to prohibit harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion. A grant program established by the bill would support anti-harassment programs on campuses, including prevention, counseling and training.

Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge in fall 2010 after his roommate and another student filmed and circulated online video of him being intimate with a man.

The bill has been introduced in both chambers in each Congress since 2010, but has gone nowhere.

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.

House Approves their Version of ESEA

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Today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up HR 5, the Student Success Act, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

There were 26 amendments offered. Only five amendments passed (including a Chairman’s substitute), 16 failed, 4 were withdrawn and one was ruled not germane to the bill by the Chair. The amendments also with largely down party lines.

The committee passed HR 5 by a final, party line vote of 21-16.

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.