Last night, the Senate approved a number of amendments to the FAA reauthorization measure, including amendments that would provide a five-year extension of the unmanned aircraft system test site program and impose criminal penalties for unsafe operations of unmanned aircraft.
The Senate reconvenes this morning and will resume consideration of the FAA reauthorization after morning business.
Congressional leaders have not yet determined topline budget numbers for FY2017 even though Congress is supposed to pass a budget by April 15th under the Congressional Budget Act in order to begin the annual spending process. And it does not appear that House leadership has any plan ahead for passing a budget by Friday’s deadline. The House and Senate could still pass a budget after April 15th if they can reach an agreement but neither of the two sides — conservatives who want lower spending levels versus lawmakers who want to adhere to last year’s bipartisan deal — are budging.
Nonetheless, House appropriators are still moving forward with individual FY2017 spending bills this week despite the dim chances of them ever reaching the floor. The House Appropriations Committee is using the spending levels outlined in last year’s budget deal for now so that its bills can advance. The full House Appropriations Committee will take up the bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects. Also on Wednesday, the Energy-Water and Agriculture subcommittees are scheduled to mark up their spending measures.
On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Appropriations Committee plans to mark up its own versions of the Military Construction-VA and Energy-Water bills in subcommittees on Wednesday and full committee on Thursday, when it also will reveal how much discretionary money each of its subcommittees will be allocated to spend. Senate leaders already have said they will assume an overall discretionary limit of $1.07 trillion. Unlike in the House, there has been no opposition to that limit in the Senate.
All of this is leading up to one giant mess come the start of the new fiscal year on October 1st. It is all but certain that Congress will need to pass at least one continuing resolution (CR) to keep government funded in absence of new spending authority for FY2017.
Read more here.
Like the House, The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced will hold full committee markups of the Energy-Water and Military Construction-VA appropriations bills on Thursday, April 14. At that meeting, the committee will also disclose discretionary spending levels for individual subcommittees, known as 302(b)s.
The Senate has yet to pass its FY 2017 Budget, but Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has previously announced the Senate’s intention to hold to the budget agreement made last year, and move forward with a deeming motion allowing the FY 2017 appropriations process to move forward.
The House Appropriations Committee announced that they will be marking up three FY 2017 bills next week. The subcommittees for Agriculture and Energy & Water will consider their respective bills and the full committee will consider the FY 2017 Military Construction-VA bill. The committee had released a draft bill of the Military Construction-VA bill prior to Congress’s Easter Recess. All three are among the least controversial of the annual appropriations bills.
Additionally, the committee announced plans to consider an “interim report” on sub-allocations of discretionary budget allocations, which likely refers to provisional discretionary spending levels for the 12 appropriations subcommittees known as 302(b)s.
The announcement comes in advance of the House’s return from the Easter break, and when the House returns, there will be a short four legislative days to enact a FY 2017 Budget Resolution.
With House Republicans stymied on a fiscal 2017 budget resolution, the House Rules Committee will consider changes to the appropriations process next week that could be aimed at finding a compromise to the budget conundrum. Those changes could include a measure to allow appropriators to cut mandatory spending. Conservatives are looking for a way to guarantee mandatory spending cuts to offset higher discretionary spending. Regardless, there should be significant Congressional movement next week.
Here’s a selection of articles Federal Relations is enjoying this week.
Everyone is Counted – The Supreme Court is unanimous in its decision that population counts for redistricting purposes should take into account the whole population and not simply registered voters. Read more at CNN.
Soda Tax – When Bloomberg introduced a soda tax in New York, soft drink companies and consumers alike railed against the tax. Now, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is trying to introduce a similar tax. Rather than taxing what you shouldn’t eat, Kenney is framing it as a way to pay for something Philadelphians want: universal prekindergarten. Read more in The New York Times.
Crumbles – Our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling and no where is that more evident, nor coming more to a head, than Washington DC’s Metro system. Read more about the issues in The New York Times.
Senate v. SCOTUS – With an impending nomination to the Supreme Court, tensions between the court and the Senate have been on slow boil. Shortly before Justice Scalia’s death, Chief Justice John Roberts warned that the trend of approving qualified Supreme Court nominees along party-line Senate votes undermines the legitimacy of the court. Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned the Chief Justice that the recent decisions have inflamed the partisan tone, and basically, mind his own business. Read more in Politico.
Revenue Rai$ers – Asking private universities to spend more of their massive endowments for operating expenses – as some in Congress might be tempted to do – is shortsighted and could be “financially dangerous” to some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, Rice University President David Leebron said Monday. Congressional lawmakers in recent weeks have raised questions over why some of the nation’s wealthiest colleges, including Rice, continue to increase tuition despite having billions of dollars set aside. Read more in The Houston Chronicle.
Advisory – The National Cancer Institute (NCI) today named a blue ribbon panel of scientists and other experts to help guide Vice President Joe Biden’s ambitious $1 billion moonshot to cure cancer. Announced during President Barack Obama’s January State of the Union Address, the moonshot project will aim to double progress against cancer in the next 5 years and break down silos that prevent researchers from working together. NCI is spending $195 million on the effort this year and Obama has requested another $680 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for next year. Read more in Science.
You’re On! – Performance-based funding has caught on in a big way in higher education. While that model lacks a precise definition, about 30 states now allocate at least some of the money they give to colleges based on achievement measures. The idea has obvious appeal at a time when money is tight and holding institutions accountable is popular. But so far, the evidence has been mixed on whether such models actually drive the improvements — such as raising graduation rates — that they are meant to encourage. Read more in The Chronicle for Higher Education.
History Lesson – 1912, former President Teddy Roosevelt broke dramatically with his party and ran for president on an independent ticket. While strong rhetoric was used and Roosevelt came in second, his candidacy didn’t fundamentally change the party. Read more in Politico.
Backlash – Former President Bill Clinton went on the defensive at a rally for his wife, presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, this week, as President Clinton defended his 1994 crime bill that raised mandatory minimum sentences. Read more in The Hill.
Increased Grace – Pope Francis released a post-synodal apostolic exhortation called “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love” today calling for increased pastoral care and less judgement by priests for couples who wish to remarry and have not had their previous marriage annulled as well as contraception. The document is more than 250 pages long. Read more at NPR.
New York Times is now examining scientific misconceptions each week.