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News and updates

House Appropriations Committee Approves FY16 Discretionary Spending Levels

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The House Appropriations Committee adopted Fiscal Year 2016 subcommittee discretionary allocations, also known as 302(b)s, by voice vote following two markups Wednesday. The 302(b)s are the levels of federal discretionary spending per measure and the adoption will allow the committees to move forward with their work in crafting the 12 annual appropriations measures.

In addition, the House Appropriations Committee marked up the FY16 Energy-Water and FY16 Military Construction-VA spending bills today, along with voting to approve the FY16 spending allocations for all 12 regular bills. The Energy-Water committee report contains language pushing back against the Obama administration’s proposed Clean Water Rule, as well as language addressing the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The MilCon-VA bill, meanwhile, has language that a step toward providing a basis for a politically unpopular round of military base closures and realignments.

The Senate will follow suit, but the levels passed by the two respective legislative bodies might not be similar. This discrepancy will add to the FY16 appropriations challenges.

This Week in Congress, April 20-24

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Here are the committee hearings we’re monitoring this week.

MONDAY, APRIL 20

Conferences Committee Meetings
FISCAL 2016 BUDGET
3 p.m. April 20, 106 Dirksen Bldg.
Senate-House Budget Conference meeting to consider the Senate- and House-passed fiscal 2016 budget bills.

 

TUESDAY, APRIL 21

Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation
TELEHEALTH EXPANSION
10 a.m., 253 Russell Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22

Senate Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: DEFENSE
10:30 a.m., 192 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

Senate Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: TRANSPORTATION-HUD
10 a.m., 138 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

House Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: 302(B) ALLOCATIONS
10:45 a.m., 2359 Rayburn Bldg.
Full Committee Markup

House Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: ENERGY-WATER
10:45 a.m., 2359 Rayburn Bldg.
Full Committee Markup

House Science, Space & Technology
AMERICA COMPETES REAUTHORIZATION ACT
10:15 a.m., 2318 Rayburn Bldg.
Full Committee Markup

 

THURSDAY, APRIL 23

Senate Appropriations
FISCAL 2016 APPROPRIATIONS: LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION
10 a.m., 124 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

ESEA Moves through Senate HELP Committee

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Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in the markup of the Every Child Succeeds Act.

In a rare example of legislating and bipartisanship, the HELP Committee unanimously passed its rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education reauthorization bill this afternoon.  The bill, called Every Child Succeeds, includes historically toxic education topics like testing and school performance ratings. The bill has been so toxic that the last three Congresses have tried and failed to rewrite it. The House had to pull the measure from the House Floor earlier this year after full consideration because of lack of support for final passage.

In contrast, the bipartisan legislation, cowritten by Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, figuratively flew through the committee. It was unveiled last week and considered Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

In contrast, the 2013 consideration of legislation to reauthorize these programs, with a committee largely comprised of the same group of Senators, was mired in partisan gridlock, dozens of amendments and two long days of fighting. What ultimately passed on June 12, 2013 was by a party-line vote of 12-10. All Democrats on the committee approved the bill and all Republicans opposed it.

Conversely, today, every member of the committee, Republican and Democrat, including the polarizing Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Tim Scott (R-NC), Al Franken (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), all lined up their support behind the committee chairs and the legislation. The overall tone to the whole process between Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray has been one of cooperation and compromise.

Senator Alexander hopes the Senate] can take up the measure before the Memorial Day recess.

While passing the Senate seems all but assured, the Senate version is vastly different than the House measure. What, if anything, will pass the House remains to be seen.

More information about the Every Child Succeeds can be found here.

To watch the markup, click here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor this bill and report on it’s progress.

 

House Releases COMPETES

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The House Science Committee Republicans released their version of the America COMPETES reauthorization legislation. The COMPETES bill reauthorizes major science programs including then entirety of the National Science Foundation, the science programs within the Department of Energy, and NIST.

The bill is here.

In addition, the legislation will mark up the Full Committee next week on April 22nd at 10:15 EST. You can watch the mark up here.

The Office of Federal Relations is monitoring this legislation and will give updates as it progresses.

What We’re Reading, April 13-17

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Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias on the Capitol Grounds

After taking the two week recess with Congress, here’s a selection or articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

For the Win – A look as to why it’s likely (right now) that Hillary will win the presidency (or at least a Democrat will). Read it at New York Mag.

Fake –  An article on why legitimate publications are publishing fake “peer-reviewed” articles. Read it at Slate.

NCLB – Ed Week did a nice overview of what to expect during this week’s  HELP Committee mark up of the long-awaited and much over due Elementary and Secondary Education legislation. Read more at Ed Week. 

Starving – An Op-Ed about the need for the Humanities and humanities education, which is what makes us well rounded humans. Read read it at NY Times.