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Category: Pure Politics

Senate GOP Releases CR

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After scheduling but not voting to debate the Continuing Resolution (CR) measure on Tuesday, the Senate Republicans finally unveiled the measure today and voted to proceed today.  In a bit of political maneuvering, the Senate just adopted by voice vote the motion to proceed and consider the underlying vehicle for the nine week CR (HR 5325, the FY 2017 Military Construction bill).  Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then offered a substitute as well as a cloture motion, amid a rising tide of disagreement among Republicans and Democrats. Senators will have four days to review the text of the Republican-written CR.

Senate negotiators continue to seek an agreement on a stopgap funding bill that would also include a Zika response and full FY 2017 funding for military construction and veterans but negotiations between Senate Republicans an Democrats have been and continue to be contentious.

Republicans insist that the CR is “clean” or free of many of the riders that have bogged down negotiations thus far, such as Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) efforts to prevent the US from turning control of certain internet properties to the UN. That said, the measure would still include emergency funding for flood relief in Louisiana, as well as West Virginia and Maryland and includes Zika funding.

In releasing the bill, Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)said on the floor that Democrats will oppose the Republican’s substitute, the Republican majority’s first public text of a continuing resolution filed in the Senate.

Despite having text, this process is still a long way from being finished.

 

 

 

Hiccup with a CR

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Writing a stopgap spending measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), to avoid a government shutdown on October 1st, just got a bit harder than lawmakers anticipated.

Typically, CRs extend current funding levels into the new fiscal year for a short duration. Unfortunately, there’s a hitch this time. If current FY2016 funding is simply extended, it would exceed the FY 2017 discretionary spending caps as set by Sequestration in 2011. How much will it exceed? According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a straight extension will exceed the caps by $10 billion.As scored by CBO for the purposes of a stopgap, FY 2016 base discretionary spending comes in at $1.080 trillion, $10 billion above the $1.070 trillion, FY 2017 limit.

The CBO explained that most of the excess spending comes from the scheduled expiration of some spending cuts in fiscal 2017, as previously passed in prior fiscal years.

So some of the same budget maneuvers that allowed Congress to spend billions more dollars in FY 2016 are now complicating the crafting of a stopgap funding measure to keep the government operating when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. The maneuvers that were used in FY 2016 include changes in mandatory programs, or so-called CHIMPs, that inflated nondefense spending in FY 2016. CHIMPs refer to provisions in appropriations bills that reduce or constrain mandatory spending, providing an offset for higher discretionary spending.

In preparing for a stopgap spending measure, the CBO’s score must eliminate any savings that do not automatically continue into the next year, including changes in mandatory programs that appropriators often make to free up extra money for discretionary projects. Changes in mandatory programs, mostly from an expiring cut to the Children’s Health Insurance Fund,  account for $5.6 billion of the lost savings. Further, the CBO score assumes that a CR extends the entirety of the subsequent fiscal year, not a short duration — a prudent move since it is currently unclear how long the CR will last. The date being cited most often now is December 9th. 

It is not yet clear whether the overage problem can be fixed through some simple technical corrections, or whether it could mean trimming any popular programs. 

Meanwhile, the House Republican Caucus remains deeply divided on how to proceed. Despite the Constitution clearly stating that the power of the purse originates in the House, the Senate will go first in trying to pass a short-term CR next week to keep the federal government functioning through the November election.

Stay tuned.

They’re BACK!!!!

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After seven weeks of recess, the House and Senate are back to work today.  Congressional lawmakers now have approximately 17 legislative days to figure out how to avoid a government shutdown before the new fiscal year (FY 2017) begins on October 1. As we saw last year (a non-election year), coming to an agreement on how to allocate federal fiscal resources is already and tough job. Now, with re-election campaigns now in high gear, political tensions have only grown worse since Congress adjourned in mid-July, further complicating the difficult dealmaking to come.

Adding another layer of complications and vitriol, at least on the House side, the House Freedom caucus, a vocal group of about 40 hard-core conservatives, are blaming GOP leadership for the defeat of one of the caucus’s most active members, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), in a party primary in August.

Much of this week will likely be spent drawing battle lines over the expected stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that would extend current FY 2016 funding levels into the new fiscal year (FY 2017) for a short length of time. While a typical CR simply extends all current funding levels for a specified amount of time, pressure is building to add money to combat the Zika virus. A $1.1 billion Zika package collapsed in July in a partisan standoff, although efforts could be made to revive it with modifications. The Senate is feeling pressure to include Zika funding from Senators like Floridian Marco Rubio, who’s state has been particularly impacted. Flood relief for Louisiana is as expected to be discussed.

The length of the CR is also in question. Fiscal hawks of the House Freedom Caucus have long been arguing for a CR into March of 2017 to wait until the new President is in office. Many others in Congress, namely the Democrats, want to clear the decks for the new President and pass an omnibus measure in December — something the staunch conservatives in Congress have vowed to fight in the lame duck session. In fact, Senate Democrats have been very vocal on this issue, and without the support of the Senate Democrats on any CR measure, the Senate Republicans cannot overcome the 60-vote threshold to defeat cloture. 

Look for much posturing to come!

GOP Unveils Higher Ed Party Platform

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Monday kicked off the Republican National Convention. One of the first orders of business approving a 58-page party platform, which takes a stance on an array of issues that are important to higher education, including: campus sexual assault, transgender student issues, student loans, college accreditation, for-profit education, and campus protests and student activism. More information on the particulars can be found here.