Eight Days to End of Fiscal Year

Posted on September 23, 2013

There are just eight days left in the current federal fiscal year yet there is no certainty as to how lawmakers will resolve their partisan differences before October 1^st. The continuing resolution (CR) approved by the House last Friday will be the focus in the Senate where they will attempt to modify the bill before sending it back to the House for consideration. The House, meanwhile, will shift their immediate attention to a proposal to raise the debt ceiling until after the 2014 November elections.

Continuing Resolution: Senate Democrats will greatly modify the House passed CR to strip it of language defunding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and keep government funded at current levels. They will send that back to the House where Republican leadership may or may not find enough votes to approve the modified version of the bill. This could lead to a series of back and forth votes between the House and Senate in an effort to avoid a government shutdown if there is no deal by next Monday.

But even a clean, level-funded CR may face opposition from some House Democrats who continue to argue that austerity spending plans are harming the economy and threatening job growth since a level-funded CR would trigger automatic, across-the-board cuts (sequestration). However, those cuts would not begin until January so Congress could still pass separate legislation late in the year to undo them.

Debt Ceiling: Meanwhile, House Republican leaders are drafting a debt limit bill that will likely be unveiled next week and would remove the ceiling on federal borrowing authority beyond the 2014 elections. And, just like their CR, it would delay implementation of the ACA, as well as cut mandatory spending, provide instructions for a tax overhaul, and promote deregulation and energy development.

Although the White House would not necessarily object to a debt limit suspension mechanism, the House plan would be laden with provisions the White House and congressional Democrats oppose. Obama has said he wants a clean debt limit increase before it expires in mid-October and he has ruled out negotiating over an increase in borrowing authority.

And We’re Back… To Fiscal Issues

Posted on September 11, 2013

What a difference a couple of days makes here in the nation’s capitol. On Monday, President Obama and Congress were still projecting a vote to take military action in Syria. But this morning it appears that the pause button has been pushed on that topic and lawmakers are once again turning to fiscal issues.

Late yesterday, House Republican leadership proposed a $986.3 billion short-term, stopgap spending bill (H J Res 59) that would fund federal government into FY14 at current funding levels. The proposed continuing resolution (CR) would avoid a government shut down as we quickly approach the end of the fiscal year on September 30^th and would fund government through December 15^th – giving lawmakers plenty of time to come to an agreement on how best to fund government for FY14.

The CR contains a handful of provisions to allow limited funding flexibility for some agencies. For example, the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies would be able to maintain current staffing levels to ensure border security operations and immigration activities continue. The CR also allows some additional funding for the Department of Interior and the Forest Service for wildfire suppression efforts, the Veterans Benefits Administration for disability claims processing, and some flexibility for federal weather satellite programs.

But it is not yet clear as to when the House will vote on the proposed CR. The House Republican caucus is divided over leaders’ plan to pair the CR with a separate resolution withdrawing funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act in fiscal 2014. But House conservatives are not happy with the plan that they say would create yet another symbolic vote against the health care law while allowing implementation to move forward. Conservatives want the CR to block all health overhaul funding and some have also called for adding a provision banning lawmakers and staff from receiving government contributions towards their health care premiums.

Using the fiscal 2013 spending level of about $988 billion would mark a compromise, as some House conservatives want to see spending in the CR set to the $967 billion level dictated for fiscal 2014 by the Budget Control Act (PL 112-25). Senate Democrats say they are ready to move forward with a plan that runs into December, even if it is based on a simple extension of spending at the annual level used in FY13.

Meanwhile, the Bipartisan Policy Center announced yesterday that the federal government could default as early as October 18th. This matches the administration’s projection. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to raise the debt limit without any conditions and ruled out any negotiations over it after a protracted debt limit fight two years ago.

This Week in Congress

Posted on September 9, 2013

Congress returned from their five-week August recess today. There are a few issues of interest to us that they are expected to tackle in the next couple months, but much of the legislative calendar has been rearranged around the situation in Syria. Below are a couple of hearings this week that have been confirmed and we are keeping an eye on.

TUESDAY, September 10, 2013

House Education and the Workforce
Institute of Education Sciences
Full Committee Hearing
10 am, 2175 Rayburn

WEDNESDAY, September 11, 2013

House Education and the Workforce
Higher Education Affordability
Subcommittee Hearing
12 pm, 2175 Rayburn Building

WA Member Bills

Posted on September 4, 2013

Below are a couple of recently introduced bills by our own Washington congressional delegation that we are tracking. More information about these bills can be found at thomas.loc.gov

HR 2105 – Information Technology Exchange Program Act of 2013
Sponsor: Congressman Derek Kilmer (D-WA)
Introduced: 5/22/2013
Current Status: Referred to House Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats, and Capabilities.
Summary: The bill aims to continue a program that allows employees from the private sector or academia to temporarily work for the Department of Defense (DOD) and DOD employees to work in the private sector. This will help DOD to modernize and protect and our nation’s information technology infrastructure and will help benefit private industry and academic institutions when developing tools and products to make lasting and significant contributions to the national defense.
Kilmer Press Release

HR 2944 – TIGER CUBS Act
Sponsor: Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA)
Introduced: 8/1/2013
Current Status: Referred to House Committees on Appropriations and the Budget
Summary: With the full name of the bill, The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery for Cities Underfunded Because of Size Act of 2013, this bill would set aside 20 percent of special transportation infrastructure funding (TIGER funds) for smaller cities.
Larsen Press Release

Recently Introduced Bills Concerning Ocean Clean Up

Posted on August 16, 2013

There have been a couple of bills introduced this summer surrounding the issue of ocean cleanup in the wake of disaster and preventing future damage to oceans. Below is a quick overview and analysis of a couple of these bills that we have been keeping our eye on.

S 1162 – A bill to authorize the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide certain funds to eligible entities for activities undertaken to address the marine debris impacts of the March 2011 Tohuko Earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
Sponsor: Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Introduced: 6/13/2013
Current Status: Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Summary: The bill would provide funding to state and local government agencies (including institutions of higher education) to address impacts created by marine debris.
House Bill: HR 1491 is the House’s identical version of this bill, introduced by Representative Suzanne Bonamici

S 1483 – A bill to amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to establish the Federal Oil Spill Research Committee and to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to include in a response plan certain planned and demonstrated investments in research relating to discharges of oil and to modify the dates by which a response plan must be updated.
Sponsor: Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Introduced: 8/1/2013
Current Status: Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Summary: The legislation would create a federal oil spill research committee which would be directed to establish a program to conduct oil spill research and development funded by grants, which would be awarded to universities and other research programs.

Cantwell Press Release