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Category: On the Hill

White House Threatens Veto for NDAA

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The House is expected to consider HR 4904, the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, and last night, in advance of that consideration, the Administration issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) threatening to veto the measure. The White House objects to the NDAA saying the legislation for shifting billions in war funds to support unrequested base Pentagon programs, arguing the maneuver “attempts to unravel” last fall’s two-year budget agreement that raised caps on both defense and domestic spending.

The annual measure, which is required yearly to direct the Department of Defense on larger policy and operations, is no stranger to controversy. The House’s version of the FY2017 NDAA shifts more than $23 billion in war-related Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds to the Pentagon’s base budget and leaves enough funding to support military contingencies only through next April. The House Committees have previously used the OCO accounts as a means to circumvent the sequester caps, since the OCO accounts were expressly exempted from the Sequester. 

Additionally, the House Rules Committee crafted a rule to remove a provision in the NDAA that requires women ages 18 to 26 register for the military draft without debate or a vote. The Rules Committee accepted an amendment by Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) to remove the provision and study the Selective Service System. In a procedural twist, Sessions’ amendment is “considered as adopted,” meaning the provision will be automatically stripped from the bill when the full House adopts the broad rule for debate Tuesday, as expected.

The House is expected to pass the NDAA this week.

Read the SAP on the House NDAA here. 

Veto Threat on Senate’s FY2017 T-HUD/Mil-Con Package

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The White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) today threatening to veto the FY2017 T-HUD/Mil-Con package the Senate is expected to consider this week.

While, the language in the SAP does not link the veto threat to any particular policy provision in the bill under consideration, which is similar to the open-ended veto threat issued by the Administration as the Senate took up its first appropriations measure, the FY2017 E&W spending bill, the SAP criticizes “problematic ideological provisions” in the legislation, including restrictions on funding related to the Guantanamo Bay detention center. 

House Unveils Zika Funding

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Today, House Appropriations Committee released the House Republicans’ $622 million supplemental appropriations bill to fight Zika. The supplemental is expected to be considered by the House this week.

The bill is fully offset, according to a statement released by the Committee. It uses $352 million in “unobligated” money that was appropriated to address the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and $270 million in “unused administrative funding” from the Health and Human Services Department. Funds would be allocated for FY 2016, which means they could be used during the next five months. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) previously announced that the Committee intends to include Zika funding in the FY 2017 Labor-H bill. 

The proposal is likely to be derided by Democratic Members and the Administration, which have repeatedly called for $1.9 billion in emergency funding without offsets to research and combat the mosquito-borne virus.

 

More Movement on Appropriations

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The House and Senate will continue to work on fiscal year 2017 funding bills next week. Both the House and Senate are expected to take up, very different, Zika funding packages next week.  While the Senate will likely to vote to accept a $1.1 billion emergency package, the House plans to vote on a bill that provides less than that but the exact amount the House is willing to provide is not yet clear. Additionally, the House bill will include off-sets and will only provide funding through Sept. 30, the end of FY 2016, unlike the Senate package.  The House has announced that the FY 2017 Labor-H package will include Zika funding. 

Next week, the full House Appropriations Committee markup of the FY 2017 Defense and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, while the respective subcommittees will mark up the FY 2017 CJS and T-HUD bills.  The Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY 2017 Ag and Legislative Branch bills.

Third Time Isn’t Charming for Senate E&W

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In an expected turn of events, the Senate failed to invoke cloture last night. The Senate’s third attempt to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate on the substitute amendment for the FY 2017 Energy-Water appropriations bill fell short.

Senate Democrats have refused to support advancing the measure unless Republicans abandon a proposed amendment by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would prevent the Energy Department from using FY 2017 funds for a planned purchase of heavy water, a byproduct of nuclear fuel processing, from Iran.

The White House has said the amendment would disrupt its agreement to focus Iran’s nuclear development efforts on energy rather than weapons and force President Barack Obama to veto the overall spending measure.

The path forward for this FY 2017 bill remains unclear.