Senate Fails to Pass Extenders for the Third Time

Posted on June 25, 2010October 17, 2012

On Thursday, Senate Democrats failed for a third time to pass a jobs and economic relief bill (tax extenders bill). Republicans rejected the $100 billion-plus package, which included payments to states to cover for Medicaid costs and an extension of unemployment benefits. This latest version of the bill reduced the original $24 billion in new state assistance for Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) to just $16 billion and also included a phase out of payments altogether. The smaller FMAP payments were also fully paid for with offsets. Unfortunately, that was not enough to attract the 60 votes necessary and the measure failed 57-41. Both Senators Murray and Cantwell supported the measure.

Individual portions of the bill may be revived, especially given the almost 1.2 million unemployed workers who are currently living without unemployment benefits. The FMAP payments are also critical to roughly 29 states – including Washington State – as they have all included these anticipated funds in their current budgets. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has expressed great frustration with yet another failure to pass this measure and announced he would pull the bill from the floor and turn to other legislation.

The Senate will go home at the end of next week for the July Fourth recess period. When they return, it is expected that they will focus their debate on energy policy, including legislation related to off-shore oil drilling. They will break again on August 6^th for a 5-week period. Unless there is a major breakthrough with those opposed to the bill, Reid seems prepared to wait until after Labor Day before trying again on the extenders bill.

Energy & Climate Action Remains Uncertain

Posted on June 17, 2010October 17, 2012

The Gulf oil spill continues to complicate negotiations on a legislative pathway for energy and climate legislation. While many agree, including the President, that Congress must take action on an energy bill this year, several moderate senators remain unconvinced that a climate bill can garner the necessary votes in the Senate. The Senate continues to discuss potential measure that would include provisions such as renewable energy incentives and standards, energy efficiency improvements, revisions to offshore oil and gas policies, and may also include climate change language that regulates greenhouse gas emissions.

The House passed a combined energy and climate measure (HR 2454) last year. But that bill and other proposals have stalled in the Senate. President Obama cited the House measure in his televised speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening but he did not specifically mention action to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the Senate Democratic Caucus plans to discuss prospects for action this year on energy and climate bills.

Multiple proposals, or portions of those proposals, are on the table for discussion. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) successfully moved an energy policy bill (S 1462) out of his committee last year that includes a renewable electricity generation standard, offshore oil production allowances, and other standard energy policy revisions. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) are pushing for their climate change proposal, which has not yet been introduced. The Kerry-Lieberman measure adds nuclear power and state offshore oil and gas revenue-sharing incentives in an attempt to garner Republican support. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced their version of a climate proposal (S 2877) last year, which proposes a “cap and dividend” solution as opposed to the more common “cap and trade” option. Finally, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) recently introduced yet another energy and climate research bill (S 3464). Except for the Lugar proposal, all the measures were crafted and unveiled prior to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Office of Federal Relations has reviewed all the current proposals and will monitor the process closely if the Senate does decide to move forward on energy and/or climate legislation this year.

Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)

Posted on May 20, 2010October 17, 2012

The House of Representatives has run into difficulty in pasing the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. After failing to advance to a final vote last week, because of passage of a motion to send the legislation back to committee for additional consideration, on Wednesday May 19th the House failed to pass a revamped version under the expedited procedure of suspension of the rules. The vote was 261 to 148, which was 12 votes short of the two-thirds vote needed for approval. Fifteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill, including Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA-8th District); no Democrats opposed it.

Following the vote, House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) stated that he will continue to move the bill towards passage. He commented that “this bill is too important to let fall by the wayside.” Continue reading “Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)”

Energy and Climate Legislative Update

Posted on January 19, 2010October 17, 2012

The US Senate returns to Capitol Hill this week to tackle a full agenda starting with a measure to increase the federal debt limit (HJ Res 45). Likely amendments to the resolution include one by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to halt the EPA rulemaking based on the so-called endangerment finding announced last month. The endangerment finding opens an alternative route for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by using existing EPA regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549) to set emissions limits.

EPA Endangerment Finding: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html

While the Senate this week debates the EPA rulemaking on climate change, there is little enthusiasm in the Senate for climate change legislation. Most political insiders believe that climate legislation is a wild-card issue on the congressional calendar this year.

Congressional committees this week scheduled their first hearings and markups of the year. On Thursday (January 21), Energy Secretary Steven Chu testifies at a hearing of the Senate energy and Natural Resources Committee on climate change research priorities.

Most of the legislation introduced during the first session of the 111^th Congress will continue to be considered by Congress. Key pieces of pending legislation on energy and climate change issues include:

S 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (Boxer-Kerry bill)

HR 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act (Waxman-Markey bill)

S 1462, American Clean Energy Leadership Act (Bingaman bill)

The Office of Federal Relations will monitor these and other pieces of climate change legislation as the year progresses and post updates to this site as new information becomes available.

UPDATE: Dorgan Predicts No Broad Climate Bill This Year

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) predicted today that he did not think the Senate can pass sweeping climate change legislation this year, citing the difficulties with completing health care reform. Dorgan added the opinion was only his judgment and cited no specific evidence. Instead, Dorgan suggested that he will push for passage this spring of energy legislation reported by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, which contains a provision opening up the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration and a renewable energy standard. Dorgan has cited strong concern for months about the prospects of setting up a massive new market for carbon as called for in cap-and-trade legislation backed by the Obama administration and many Democratic leaders, and in turn he has been a leading skeptic about its chances. Dorgan, who chairs the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, recently announced that he is not seeking re-election this fall.

House Democrats Release Health Care Legislation

Posted on July 15, 2009October 17, 2012

Yesterday, House Democrats finally unveiled their comprehensive health care overhaul legislation, including details on how they intend to pay for it. For the most part, the $1 trillion-plus plan would be paid for through a surtax on upper incomes (families with adjusted gross incomes of more than $350,000) and by more than $500 billion in savings from Medicare over 10 years.

On the Medicare side, some providers would see their Medicare payouts cut directly (with Medicare Advantage seeing a $156 billion reduction). And in other areas, Medicare would “bundle” payments for a number of related services, with the goal of providing better, less costly care for patients. Currently, Medicare typically reimburses providers for every procedure or test they do.

Prevention and wellness measures of the bill include:

Expansion of Community Health Centers;
Prohibition of cost-sharing for preventive services;
Creation of community-based programs to deliver prevention and wellness services;
A focus on community-based programs and new data collection efforts to better identify and address racial, ethnic, regional and other health disparities;
Funding to strengthen state, local, tribal and territorial public health departments and programs.

The bill expands the health care workforce through:

Increased funding for the National Health Service Corp;
More training of primary care doctors and an expansion of the pipeline of individuals going into health professions, including primary care, nursing and public health;
Greater support for workforce diversity;
Expansion of scholarships and loans for individuals in needed professions and shortage areas;
Encouragement of training of primary care physicians by taking steps to increase physician training outside the hospital, where most primary care is delivered, and redistributes unfilled graduate medical education residency slots for purposes of training more primary care physicians. The proposal also improves accountability for graduate medical education funding to ensure that physicians are trained with the skills needed to practice health care in the 21st century.