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NDAA Update: One Step Closer to Finalized

Yesterday, armed services leaders from the House and the Senate took a significant step forward in wrapping up the 2017 National Defense Authorization. While negotiations are still underway, committee leadership reportedly agreed upon adding around $9 billion to the Pentagon budget to fund wars and fill readiness shortfalls. Since the negotiations are highly sensitive, they are done in secret so Politico and Defense News reports on the ongoing negotiations are not confirmed. 

The House and Senate versions of the NDAA were $18 billion apart after the House added that amount to the $610 billion Pentagon request. Thus, $9 billion is a compromise between the two chambers. It is worth noting that, according to Politico, the measure will halt the drawdown of troops in FY 2017.

More info from Defense News here

115th Congress Senate Democratic Leadership & Committees

Today Senate Democrats held leadership elections, placing some familiar faces in new roles within the caucus. New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer will take the helm as Minority Leader, a position vacated by Harry Reid (NV) following his retirement at the end of the 114th Congress. Minority Whip goes to Illinois’ Senator Richard Durbin and our own Senator Patty Murray (WA) will take on the role of Assistant Leader, making her the third highest ranking person within the Senate Democratic hierarchy. (Congrats Senator Murray!!)  Also of note, Senator Schumer expanded the leadership team to include Senator Bernie Sanders, who will assume the new role of Chair of Outreach. 

Sanders will also assume the Ranking Minority role on the Committee on Budget. Senator Murray will remain Ranking Minority on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Senator Maria Cantwell remains Ranking Minority on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee. Here is a list of all Leadership and Committee positions for the 115th Congress.

The Senate Democratic Leadership for the 115th Congress:

Senate Democratic Leader and Chair of the Conference: Senator Charles Schumer

Democratic Whip: Senator Dick Durbin

Assistant Democratic Leader: Senator Patty Murray

Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee: Senator Debbie Stabenow

Vice Chair of the Conference: Senator Elizabeth Warren

Vice Chair of the Conference: Senator Mark Warner

Chair of Steering Committee: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Chair of Outreach: Senator Bernie Sanders

Vice Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee: Senator Joe Manchin

Senate Democratic Conference Secretary: Senator Tammy Baldwin

 

The committee ranking members for the 115th Congress:

 Agriculture: Senator Debbie Stabenow

Armed Services: Senator Jack Reed

Appropriations: Senator Patrick Leahy

Banking: Senator Sherrod Brown

Budget: Senator Bernie Sanders

Commerce: Senator Bill Nelson

Energy: Senator Maria Cantwell

EPW: Senator Tom Carper

Finance: Senator Ron Wyden

Foreign Relations: Senator Ben Cardin

HELP: Senator Patty Murray

HSGAC: Senator Claire McCaskill

Indian Affairs: Senator Tom Udall

Judiciary: Senator Dianne Feinstein

Rules: Senator Amy Klobuchar

Small Business: Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Veterans Affairs: Senator Jon Tester

Aging: Senator Bob Casey

Ethics: Senator Chris Coons

Intelligence: Senator Mark Warner

JEC: Senator Martin Heinrich

House Dems Delay Leadership Election

House Democrats have delayed their caucus leadership elections which were slated for Thursday. The current Democratic leader,  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), agreed to the delay at a closed-door conference meeting. Initially it appeared the House Democrats would decide on Thursday whether to go forward with their elections that day but decided today to simply delay the election.

Some House Democrats had been pressing for a delay in Thursday’s vote, something that could conceivably give more time for an opponent of Pelosi’s to mount a challenge.

The election will now be held on November 30.

 

Jindal HHS Secretary Possibility, Carson Out

Former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is in the running for Secretary of HHS. He has health care policy in his background. At just 24 years old, he served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, and later served as principal policy adviser to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson in President George W. Bush’s administration. Pence and Jindal served in the House together. 

Jindal has proposed Obamacare replacement plan, which he first released in 2014. Full report: More. Executive summary: More.

However, others are still in the mix, and Jindal was no fan of Trump during the Republican primaries. Jindal also attempted a run for president this cycle and then threw his support to Rubio. That could take him out of serious contention. 

Dr. Ben Carson, presidential nominee, has announced he will not be in the Trump Cabinet effectively taking himself out of the running for a series of Secretary positions to which his name has been linked.

New Member Orientation and the Perils of Lame Duck

After a bruising election, House and Senate are both back in session today to figure out how (and what) to move forward in the Lame Duck. The overall priority will be to find a way to fund the government into next year. Also on the agenda are a series of bills including the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), 21st Century Cures – a major funding measure for health care research, as well as the Water Resources Development bill. 

Congress will be in session for a week before recessing for the Thanksgiving break. New Members in both the House and Senate will be in town for orientation. Also up this week are party leadership elections in both the House and Senate. While Speaker Ryan appeared endangered prior to the election, the Republican leadership in the Senate and House is expected to be the same. The more interesting party to watch in leadership elections this week might be the Democrats in the House. They badly underperformed on Election Day, and allies of Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, have been busy trying to limit unrest over her continuing tenure. While, Pelosi is expected to remain leader, she needs to address rank-and-file frustration with life in the minority.

Show Me the Money
How will Congress approach funding? A stopgap through next spring has long been advocated by House conservatives. Prior to the election, an omnibus or series of smaller “minibus” packages was expected. Now with the House, Senate, and Administration all soon to be in Republican control, Republicans seem more inclined to pass a CR into the Spring of 2017 or even a full year CR, potentially with fully funding select FY 2017 measures already through the Appropriations Committee, than prior to the election. Exactly which measures that could be included for full year funding are still being discussed. It seems that House Republican leaders are leaning toward a CR, while Senate leaders appear to prefer a spending deal to wind up the FY 2017 this year.

Regardless, Congress still has to deal with the current President, and what he will sign, in the near term.
A CR until the spring would allow the new Administration to put its own stamp on spending within the first 100 days. That said, it will put another “must do” on the new Trump Agenda, which already has to shape FY 2018 spending as well as face an early (and highly unpopular with conservatives) vote on raising the debt limit, and will further complicate the Trump agenda of what to do with Obamacare, tax reform, immigration reform, infrastructure measure and more. 

That situation was complicated late last week by the $11.6 billion war supplemental the Obama Administration sent to Congress. It includes $5.8 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations funding for the Pentagon and another $5.8 billion in OCO money for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. That funding could go a long way to bridging the $18 billion defense funding gap between House leaders and the White House.

Other Items

The NDAA, which is Congress’s annual need-to-pass defense fiscal policy bill, is currently being held up over a dispute over an endangered bird and LGTB rights is holding up the legislation. The White House has threatened to veto the annual bill if, among many other objections, it includes language that would allow federal contractors to discriminate against employees based on their sexual orientation. It is not clear yet if lawmakers will reach a compromise over the legislation before the end of the year.

Congressman Upton’s priority, 21st Century Cures, has also long been a possibility for the Lame Duck, but now its fate this Congress seems unclear.

The House and Senate passed widely different versions of WRDA in September, with the upper chamber’s bill being much broader. And while the House measure would authorize spending to help Flint, Mich. tackle its lead contamination crisis, the Senate’s bill would appropriate actual funding.