Omnibus Released

Posted on December 16, 2015December 17, 2015

House Republican Leadership released the long-awaited FY 2016 omnibus appropriations and tax extenders package late last night. The $1.15 trillion, 2,009-page package was delayed until just after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday after party leaders spent Tuesday swapping final offers.

House Republican Leadership initially said they would adhere to the GOP’s “three-day rule,” releasing the package on Tuesday and scheduling a House final passage vote Thursday. However, with the delay in filing the measure until Wednesday morning, the House also unveiled a third short-term continuing resolution (CR) to extend federal spending authority until December 22nd as a precautionary measure. The third stop gap is expected to pass both chamber today as the second CR expires tonight at midnight.

At present, the House is expected to vote on the tax-extenders package on Thursday and the omnibus spending bill on Friday, the last business for Congress before the holidays.

House Democrats have not endorsed the legislation yet, but have stated they will go through the massive bill line-by-line.

The FY 2016 Omnibus abandons the most contentious policy riders that have highly contentious and held up recent negotiations, including language that would have penalized Planned Parenthood, blocked a major clean water rule from the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, relaxed coordination restrictions on the national political parties, imposed new restrictions on refugees from the Middle East, and peeled back portions of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul.

One of the biggest legislative add-ons to the omnibus is a repeal of the decades-old ban on crude oil exports, which is a priority for House Republicans.

The Senate is expected to consider the legislation later in the week.

Given the size of the bill, details are still forthcoming, but highlights include:

The National Institutes of Health received $32 billion, $2 billion above current levels.
The National Science Foundation is funded at $7.5 billion, an increase of $119 million, and directorates such as Social and Behavioral Sciences were funded at FY 2015 levels.
NASA is funded at $19.3 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level to advance America’s leadership in space and science. Within this total, $4 billion is provided for Exploration, including funding to keep the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System on schedule, and $5.6 billion is provided for science programs.
Defense research was funded at $69.8 billion for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies, which was minor increases.
The maximum Pell Grant award is increased to $5,915.
Title VI International Education programs were held at FY 2015 levels.
NOAA received $5.8 billion, which is $325 million above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Funding was included for the National Weather Service to provide critical weather information to the public, and investments in new and existing weather satellites that are essential to maintain and improve weather forecasts, including the Polar Follow On program.
Maximum Pell Grant award to $5,915, funded by a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds.

Federal Relations continues to review the legislation and will continue to provide updates.

What We’re Reading, December 7-11

Posted on December 10, 2015December 10, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

Corporate Culture – More college presidents are being selected not from academia, but from business, and that’s considered a good thing. Currently, twenty percent of college presidents come from a career that is not academia. It seems that it’s a double-edged sword: while these presidents do have funding prowess and are able to “sell” the school and efficiently manage, but they can be tone-deaf when dealing with the needs of students and faculty. Read more at The Atlantic.

Shoot the Hostage – One of the biggest issues for Speaker John Boehner was dealing with the House Freedom Caucus. The 2010 election had a radical effect on politics including how to conduct negotiations. The key difference between the Boehner “old school” politicos the new wave of politicians is how far they are willing to test the institution (or blow it up) to get what they want. Read more at The Washington Post.

Too Much Waivering – The University of Missouri System, and the University of Missouri at Columbia in particular, are the newest targets of a legislative inquiry, and the finding that one-half of faculty members don’t meet the system’s minimum teaching load requirement has a prominent lawmaker threatening to withhold state funding. Read more at Inside Higher Education.

Tribal Authority – A case that’s been low-profile, but will be high-impact, the Supreme Court heard on Monday the case, Dollar General Corporation v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. At the heart of the case is a fairly straight forward one of sexual assault. A 13-year-old boy said he was sexually assaulted by his manager at Dollar General. The store is on land belonging to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The boy is a member of the tribe. The manager is not. The boy’s family sued Dollar General and Townsend in tribal court in civil court because currently, tribal courts only have jurisdiction over civil cases, not criminal, when a non-native person is accused. So instead of trying the accused for the crime, the boy’s family filed a civil lawsuit against him and Dollar General. Dollar General in turn sued the tribal court, declaring it had no legal jurisdiction over non-natives, even as a civil case absent express Congressional authority. Read more at SOTUS blog.

Red Alert – The capital city of the planet’s largest polluter, Bejing, is issuing a “Red” alert over smog for the first time this week. Starting Tuesday and continuing for three days, the more than 20 million residents of Beijing will have heavy limitations imposed on their daily activities. Schools will be closed, outdoor construction will be halted, and cars will have to drive on alternate days. Read more at The Atlantic.

Trump Trumped – On MSNBC show, Morning Joe, Donald Trump was cut off and shut down for refusing to answer questions and talking over the hosts. Host Joe Scarborough said unless Trump stopped, they would go to commercial, and they did. When the show return, Trump stayed and answered questions for the next ten minutes. Read more at The Washington Post.

“Oh, for the love of God.” – Constitutional law scholars respond to Donald Trump’s plan to refuse to allow Muslim into the country. Read more at The Washington Post.

More Access – Florida Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, says the nation needs more welders and fewer philosophers, which his why he wants to change accreditation rules to let more vocational schools and online universities take advantage of the roughly $130 billion a year in federal loans and grants. Read more at USA Today.

Trump Trolled – A Florida businessman took out a full page at in the Miami Herald calling Trump a BULLionare. Predictably, Trump’s lawyer sent a cease and desist order to both the businessman and Jeb Bush’s Leadership PAC. The response from Bush’s lawyer is nothing short of AMAZING. Read the response at the Washington Post.

Bubble – With America becoming more polarized, Charles Murray, a political scientist, says the educated and wealthy live in a social and cultural bubble. Take his quiz and see if you live in a bubble at the PBS News Hour.

Short Term CR through December 16

Posted on December 10, 2015

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday released a five-day continuing resolution (CR) that would keep federal agencies operative through midnight on December 16^th. The stopgap would provide omnibus negotiators with additional time to strike a deal on a $1.1 trillion agreement to close out fiscal 2016. Both chambers must pass the resolution by the end of the day Friday (December 11^th) to extend current budget authority and avoid government shutdown.

It appears that December 16^th was the shortest possible extension needed to finish appropriations work that’s still left, but the tight turnaround time runs the risk of another stopgap being needed.

Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the year on December 18^th. While lawmakers say funding levels for agencies have largely been settled, a tax extenders package and “40 to 42” policy riders are still being negotiated, including language related to campaign finance, labor regulations, abortion, treatment of Syrian refuges, and environmental regulations.

Members will be in session tomorrow, but not over the weekend. Depending on the progress of negotiations, members will convene on Monday or Tuesday.

McCarthy Announces Short-term CR

Posted on December 8, 2015December 8, 2015

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that the House will take up a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR), as expected previously, to fund the federal government beyond midnight Friday.

At this point, it is unclear how long the CR will last, but with the announcement McCarthy also said that Members should expect to work Friday and Saturday.

If the House works through the weekend, it is highly unlikely they will stay into next week, and there will be some resolution, whether that be an omnibus or a longer CR, soon.

Stay tuned…

Approps Timeline Slips

Posted on December 7, 2015

With Congressional spending authority set to expire midnight on Friday, the likelihood of a deal before the deadline has become increasingly more unlikely.

Without any apparent consensus on a broader funding agreement, the Congressional leadership is not set to file an omnibus appropriations bill Monday night, as required by House rules, for consideration later this week as leadership had planned. Last week, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said he hoped to have an Omnibus bill drafted and ready to unveil at some point on Monday, which would have allowed the House a midweek vote.

Negotiations over the FY2016 appropriations and tax extender package are ongoing, but how to deal with contentious policy riders, which the House Democrats rejected last week, have not moved forward. It is now highly likely Congress will pass a short-term CR. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has also said that there is a possibility Congress will work through the weekend.

Congress is scheduled to be in session until December 18th. The longer Congress is unable to come to a resolution about the omnibus and tax extender legislation, the more likely a long-term Continuing Resolution will be the funding vehicle for FY 2016..