Congressman Norm Dicks to Retire

Posted on March 2, 2012October 17, 2012

Congressman Norm Dicks announced today that he will retire at the end of this session of Congress. His decision comes as a shock, but after 44 years in public service in Washington, DC, and at age 71, we all can certainly appreciate and understand his desire to spend more time with his wife Suzie, their children, and grandchildren.

Dicks will certainly leave a lasting legacy of Congressional accomplishments unlike nearly any other Member of the House or Senate. There are very few places in Washington State or even the country that have not been beneficiaries of his fine work — including the University of Washington!

The following statement has been released from UW President Michael Young:

“On behalf of generations of students, faculty and staff at the University of Washington, I want to express our deep gratitude to Congressman Dicks for his lifetime of service to the citizens of Washington and especially for his unwavering support over the many years he served in Congress for higher education and his alma mater. His service to his constituents and his knowledgeable commitment to education have benefited countless numbers of people in the Northwest and beyond, especially his staunch support for protecting the environment and conducting research to understand it better. He also was one of the early supporters of establishing the University of Washington in Tacoma. He has been a great friend to this University and a special alumnus in whose accomplishments as a public servant we take great pride. It is hard to imagine Washington’s Congressional delegation without him. If ever the phrase ‘well-deserved’ applies to a retirement announcement, this is certainly one of them.”

Today in Congress

Posted on February 17, 2012October 17, 2012

The House and the Senate are expected to vote on legislation that would extend a payroll tax cut through the end of the year. The legislation also would extend federal unemployment insurance benefits and prevent a cut in Medicare payments to physicians.

The Senate holds a test vote on an amendment offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on a two-year surface transportation bill. This procedure will help determine if the Senate can move toward final passage when they return from their President’s Day recess.

Both the House and Senate will be in recess next week for President’s Day.

Deal on Payroll Tax, Doc Fix, Unemployment

Posted on February 15, 2012October 17, 2012

Congressional leaders have reached a tentative deal on a payroll tax cut, extend unemployment benefits, and delay rate cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Under the proposed plan, a 2-percentage point payroll tax cut would be extended until the end of this calendar year. The cost of this tax cut would be added to the federal deficit. Unemployment benefits would also be extended for the next 10 months and doctors who treat Medicare patients would avoid seeing their payments cut. Those two provisions would cost about $50 billion and be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.

One of the most sensitive issues in the final negotiations was the question of how much Medicare should compensate hospitals for the bad debt accumulated when patients don’t provide their required co-pays for care (uncompensated care). Medicare currently compensates hospitals for 70 percent of their loss and the House proposed to cut this to 55 percent — saving more than $10 billion over 10 years. But this puts a heavy burden on hospitals that provide a lot of uncompensated care – like Harborview. The final compromise lowers the bad debt cut to about $7 billion, which is better than the original proposal from a couple of months ago but it will still be a blow to hospitals with low-income patients.

Effort Begins to Repeal Sequester

Posted on February 2, 2012October 17, 2012

Senate Republicans are posed today to initiate an effort to block automatic budget cuts scheduled to take place next January. They will propose replacing the first year of the spending “sequester” with a plan to shrink federal employment and extend a pay freeze on government workers. The effort is an attempt to stave off what many view as potentially devastating cuts to the Pentagon.

Late last year, House Armed Services Chairman McKeon (R-CA) offered a similar proposal (HR 3662) that quickly received a veto threat from the White House. McKeon’s legislation would save more than $120 billion over a decade, effectively offsetting the first year of the statutory sequester of both defense and non-defense spending. That would push off until FY14 the spending cuts triggered the Budget Control Act (PL 112-25) that was approved by Congress last August.

The Senate’s proposed bill, the Down Payment to Protect National Security Act of 2012, will add credibility to the sequester repeal effort due to the high-profile sponsors of the bill, including Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), John Cornyn (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).

Like McKeon’s measure, the Senate legislation would replace $109 billion in estimated, across-the-board spending cuts that are set to kick in January 2, 2013 with savings from a reduction in the federal workforce over a decade. McKeon’s proposal would trim the workforce by 10 percent by replacing every three workers who leave an agency with just one new hire. The Senate bill would cut the workforce by 5 percent, replacing every three full-time workers who leave with two new hires. The Senate bill goes farther than the House measure by also finding savings by extending the current pay freeze for federal civilian workers until June 30, 2014. Contrast that will what is expected to be in the President’s FY13 budget request: a 0.5 percent pay bump for federal employees in his budget proposal due February 13^th, bringing an end to the two-year freeze.

Senator Murray (D-WA) has already expressed her opposition to the GOP plan via Twitter, where she posts “GOP to lay out plan to avoid def. cuts tmw. Who thinks it will also avoid having wealthy pay fair share? Ask only middle class sacrifice?”

Surface Transportation Reauthorization

Posted on February 1, 2012October 17, 2012

House Republicans released the text of their much-anticipated $260 billion, four-and-a-half-year surface transportation reauthorization bill last night. You can read the text of the bill here (PDF). Legislation action on the draft bill begins in earnest today as the House Natural Resources Committee marks up the bill’s energy title. That markup, starting at 10 am today, will tackle the controversial proposal to link transportation funding to increased energy production in ANWR and along both coasts. The House Transportation & Infrastructure is scheduled to markup the policy provisions Thursday, with House Ways & Means Committee markup of the financing expected February 3^rd. Finally, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will markup the drilling provisions on February 8^th.

Here’s a partial list of what made it into the House bill, with more to come.

Highway funding: Highways would be funded at $37.4 billion in FY13, rising to $38 billion for FY16 (this is essentially level funding).

TIGER Grants: Eliminates the TIGER discretionary grant program.

University Transportation Centers: Eliminates “Regional, Tier I, and Tier II Center” from SAFETEA-LU and replaces them with 10 Regional Centers funded at $3.5 million and 20 Standard Centers funded at $2 million. The language directs one of the regional centers to focus on Comprehensive Transportation Safety, and one (separate) regional center to focus on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The bill requires a new round of competition 180 days from enactment of the legislation.

Transportation Enhancements: The bill would eliminate the Transportation Enhancements set-aside, which is set at 10 percent of a state’s Surface Transportation Program funds. This could hurt UW’s efforts to secure federal funding to improve the Burke Gilman Trail. I understand that Reps. Tom Petri (R-WI) and Tim Johnson (R-Il) will offer amendments to restore funding to the Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School programs.

Bridge inspections: Mandates inspection standards for highway bridges and tunnels, and requires the creation of a training program for bridge inspectors. Of particular interest to research universities that are working with composites is a section that reads: The Secretary shall establish research and development programs… (C) The development of more durable highway and bridge infrastructure materials and systems, including the use of carbon fiber composite materials in bridge replacement and rehabilitation. We understand that this wording is in Section 7005 under Research and Development (page 626 of the draft T&I Bill).

Tolling: Significantly expands tolling on the National Highway System, including for initial construction, initial construction of a lane on an existing highway that increases its capacity, and reconstructing both interstate and non-interstate highways under certain conditions.

Truck weight: Truck weights would be allowed to be increased from 80,000 pounds on five axles to 97,000 pounds on six axles. States could also boost weights up to 126,000 pounds on some portions of the interstate.

Minimum DUI penalties: Creates minimum penalties for driving while intoxicated, including for first-time offenders, which includes suspension of a person’s driver’s license. In some cases driving privileges could be reinstated contingent on installation of an ignition interlock device that requires blowing sober on a Breathalyzer before the car will start.

Amtrak: Reaches back into the 2008 law (PL 110-432) that last reauthorized Amtrak and brings back some of the passenger rail service’s authorization levels. The bill would cut Amtrak’s authorization for operating grants for FY12 and FY13 from $616 million and $631 million respectively to $466 million and $463 million.

House Speaker Boehner will start working his caucus today to build support for quick passage of the surface transportation bill. Conservatives in his conference feel they were shut out of developing the bill and worry they will be forced into voting for a measure that they don’t support and that has little chance of passing the Senate. House Democrats may also oppose the funding options that use drilling royalties to pay for the bill.

In the Senate, the Finance Committee mark up the revenue title of their surface transportation bill has been delay (again) until next week. The Senate version offers a two-year, $85.3 billion version of the authorization approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee late last fall. Like the House measure, it also calls for continuing spending at current levels.

Funding issues remain the biggest obstacle to passage of either version (or a compromise bill). The main source of dollars, fuel taxes collected by the Highway Transit Fund, has been depleted because of the development of more fuel-efficient vehicles and fewer miles driven by consumers. In its new projections, the Congressional Budget Office found that the trust fund’s balance in FY11 was $22 billion, and the balance will be spent down precipitously: to $12 billion in FY12, $3 billion in FY13, and zero for the remaining 10 years. The House proposal would seek new funding for the bill from royalties by expanding oil and gas exploration along coastal waters and in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve, but the plan is likely a non-starter with many Democrats.

Congress last cleared a surface transportation bill (PL 109-59), known as SAFETEA-LU, in 2009, and the current short-term extension (PL 112-30) expires at the end of March.