Last night, the Senate cleared the $305 billion surface transportation reauthorization revealed this week. This is the first five-year highway and transit reauthorization Congress has passed since 2005.The bill also includes a four-year extension of the Export-Import Bank charter, through fiscal 2019.
The measure passed by a 83-16 vote. Passage of the highway and transit bill comes one day before the current law expires.
President Obama is expected to sign it shortly.
The Senate shelved consideration of the FY2016 Transportation-HUD spending bill after Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked progress on two transportation-related amendments and demanded consideration of his amendment to bar assistance to refugees from certain countries. Senate Leadership announced there will be no more votes this week in the Senate, opening the door to the Thanksgiving recess.
Earlier today, the House passed legislation putting more restrictions on refugees entering the country and adjourned pending on the adjournment of the Senate. The House has concluded all its legislative business prior to the Senate.
The House and Senate will be back in session November 30th.
Today, Dept. of Education officials announced a series of actions centering on transparency in an effort to force accreditors to focus more on student outcomes and hold failing colleges accountable. For the most part, the accrediting agencies will not be required to change their practices. Instead, ED hopes to drive change by publishing and disseminating a wealth of information about accreditors and the colleges they oversee on a revamped department web page. One definite change accrediting agencies will have to make: submitting decision letters – which the department will then publish online – when they put institutions on probation.
The Senate cleared a bipartisan budget and debt limit accord early Friday morning which would send the legislation to the President’s desk. Roughly 72 hours after it was unveiled and buying roughly two years of relative budgetary stability after months of partisan sniping on spending, the Senate passed HR1314 shortly after 3 am. The House passed the measure Wednesday evening.
Just after 3 am, the upper chamber passed the deal by a vote of 64-35, roughly 90 minutes after voting to cut off debate on the legislation. Eighteen Republicans voted in favor of final passage, including Senate GOP Leadership, while 35 Republicans voted against the measure. Forty-four Democrats and two independent senators who conference with Democrats backed the package. See the vote total here.
The budget deal would raise discretionary spending caps for defense and nondefense accounts by $80 billion above the sequester level for fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2017 and suspend the debt limit until March 15, 2017. The increased discretionary spending is offset with cuts to various entitlement programs and revenue raisers.
Not all Congressional work is hearings, fundraisers, cocktail parties. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that the Senate was on track to pass the budget deal. If there were no procedural issues, the vote is expected to occur at 1am Friday morning.