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Category: Legislation

FY 2015 Continuing Resolution Released

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Last night, the House of Representatives released their version of the FY2015 Continuing Resolution to fund federal government through December 11, 2014.

The CR would fund the government at its current rate of $1.012 trillion annually with only a few changes in spending. Those changes include the Administration’s $88 million request to fight the Ebola crisis, providing money to both speed up the development and manufacturing of Ebola drugs and to support medical specialists on the ground in West Africa. The measure does not include any new funding for the child migrant crisis, or any extra funding for fighting the Islamic State terrorist group known as ISIS. The measure would, however, extend the Internet access tax moratorium, boost spending for disability claims processing at the VA, and continue heightened funding for certain eastern European-related programs at the State Department. Finally, and probably the most controversial change, the CR would extend authorization of the Export-Import Bank through June 2015, something that Congress was unable to agree on prior to their August recess.

The CR is expected to move through the House Rules Committee on today and come to the floor under a closed rule without the chance for amendments tomorrow. Meanwhile, Senate appropriators are working through the details of their own CR proposal. We expect to see that proposal once the House approves their CR and sends it to the Senate for consideration. And all of this is expected to be complete before September 23rd when Congress is scheduled to break until after the mid-term elections.

Senators Introduce America COMPETES

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Senators Jay Rockefeller, (D-UW and Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Ed Markey (D-MA) have introduced the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2014.

The Senators’ bill would authorize stable and sustained increases in federal research and development (R&D) funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The bill would also promote the economic benefits of promising R&D and address agency efforts, including at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to increase participation in STEM fields, including among women and minorities.

The House has considered several contentious measures to reauthorize America COMPETES over the last year. The measure introduced by the Senate is in direct competition to the House versions.

The Senate version can be viewed here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the legislation and update the progress of the measure.

Senate Passes VA and Transportation Bill

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The Senate has passed two key pieces of legislation clearing them for the President’s signature.

The Senate has passed legislation overhauling the scandalized Department of Veterans Affairs, by a vote of  91-3. The House considered the measure earlier in the week. The measure contains provisions expanding Graduate Medical Education at VA Hospitals as well as requiring public universities to offer in-state tuition to active duty servicemembers, their spouses, and dependents. 

Also, the Senate has cleared, by a vote of 81-13, an $11 billion bill to keep highway and transit programs funded through May, acting quickly following House passage of the bill earlier today. Tonight’s vote heads off the possibility of states having federal money for transportation projects throttled starting tomorrow.

House Melts Down

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In what was supposed to be the last series of votes before the August Recess, the House has pulled a vote for legislation that would fund the border crisis. Both an emergency funding measure and a measure  to limit the Deferred Action on Child Arrivals (DACA) program, for which consideration was dependent on the funding measure passing, have been pulled at the last minute, causing mass confusing and potential political disaster just before the August recess.

House Republican leadership has pulled the $659 million supplemental funding bill to fund the efforts at the Mexican border. Earlier this month, President Obama requested nearly $3 billion to fund federal agency efforts in border states responding to a swell of young and underage immigrants from Central America.  Under the House rules for the supplemental, consideration of the supplemental was required before the House could consider and vote on a bill to limit the DACA program, which defers deportations of certain undocumented people who came to the United States as children.

Not long after noon, it became clear that House Republican Leadership did not have the votes. Led by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Tea Party-aligned Members revolted, saying that the supplemental appropriations bill did not go far enough to stem the flow of new migrants and threatened to vote against the GOP-authored measure.

Rather than see the measure defeated, it was pulled from consideration.

The DACA legislation had been unlikely to advance in the Senate and already had been ticketed for a presidential veto.

The decision to pull the $659 million measure is a major embarrassment for new House Republican leadership team. This was first major effort by Rep. Steve Scalise, who was recently elected Majority Whip.

The House will likely consider a revamped funding measure on Friday.

House Passes VA Conference Report

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The conference report to accompany H.R. 3230 (reported earlier on the Federal Affairs Blog) was adopted by the House – 420 Yeas, 5 Nays.

The Senate is expected to pass it later this week.