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Category: Veterans

First Spending Bills to be Cleared by Friday?

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The conference report for the package that contains the first three appropriations bills of FY2019– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– was quickly adopted by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 92 to 5.  An agreement between the House and Senate negotiators was reached on it earlier this week.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later today and is expected to clear it by Friday, clearing it for the President’s signature.  As noted above, these three bills, if signed into law, would represent the first spending bills approved for FY2019, which starts on Oct 1.

On a related note, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to formally meet today on two other sets of spending bills.  The first combines the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Defense bills and second pulls together the Interior, Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services bills.

Progress and Potential Stumbling Blocks Seen on FY2019 Spending

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While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills.  If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.

While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain.  For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.

In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.”  This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move.  It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.

More Movement Seen on Senior Administration Officials Front

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Late Monday, recently appointed White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned from his post. The resignation was prompted by what he shared with Vice President Pence about his call with the Russian ambassador to the United States almost immediately following the Presidential election in November.

Flynn had reportedly told Pence that he did not discuss with the ambassador the sanctions levied against Russia by the Obama Administration. The Vice President then publicly supported Flynn’s claim. It was revealed late last week that the subject of the sanctions may have been discussed during the call between Flynn and the ambassador.

On the Cabinet front, Steve Mnuchin, a long-time executive at Goldman Sachs, was confirmed by the Senate mostly along party lines on Monday as the Treasury Secretary. Also on Monday, David Shulkin was confirmed unanimously by the Senate to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2015, Shulkin was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to head the Veterans Health Administration.

A number of other Cabinet confirmations remain, including those for Secretary of Department of Labor and Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

More Cabinet Positions, House Works on Reg Repeal

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Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, will get a vote around 7 p.m. tonight in what’s become a drawn-out process in the Senate. Following the final vote on Mnunchin  there will a procedural vote on on David Shulkin to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 

Mnunchin is expected to pass and once he does the Treasury Secretary is expected take on a big lift immediately as President Trump has promised to unveil a big tax-cutting plan in coming weeks. Whatever is reveals, it is sure to set off a partisan firestorm. It will fall to Mnuchin to translate the President’s campaign promises on tax relief for all individuals and corporations into legislation that might be approved by a politically polarized Congress.

As early as this week, the Senate is also likely to confirm Rep. Mick Mulvaney as the new White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director. Mulvaney, a founding member of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus, is also sure to rankle defense hawks worried about military spending. 

Trump has promised to increase defense spending to boost a military force, so even if Mulvaney supports reining in all federal spending, the defense budget is likely to increase by tens of billions of dollars above current levels in each of the next few years. The Pentagon is expect to seek tens of billions of dollars from Congress to implement Trump’s vow to rebuild the military. 

It is expected that the Senate will vote on at least on other nominee this week — either Perry, Pruitt, or Zinke — but no other nominees have not been scheduled for a vote thus far.

Meanwhile, the next big nomination fight over President Trump’s Cabinet nominees is moving from Betsy DeVos to Andrew Puzder, who will appear before the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday. The hearing has been delayed four times while the Office of Government Ethics awaited paperwork. It took some time to work out a plan to divest holdings in CKE Restaurants, the fast-food company (parent to the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s chains) of which Puzder is chairman.

On the other side of the Hill, the House convenes at noon to consider a bill on surveying the boundary along the Red River in Oklahoma and Texas. Later this week, the House is expected to take up five “disapproval resolutions” to roll back rules undertaken during the Obama Administration including two Labor Department rules on savings arrangements for non-governmental employees and a resolution that would disapprove the District of Columbia Council’s approving the Death with Dignity Act of 2016.

DeVry Commits to 85/15 Revenue Threshold

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Today, one of the nation’s largest purveyors of for-profit higher education, the DeVry Education Group, made a commitment to limit how much revenue it receives from federal student aid to 85 percent. Federal law stipulates that no more than 90 percent of revenue originate from federal aid. The move is broadly viewed as a response to broad criticisms of the for-profit education industry.

Eager to know more? Check out coverage from the Washington Post here.