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News and updates

Rep George Miller Announces Retirement

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Yet another Congressional leader of Higher Education announced his retirement today. Rep. George Miller announced he was retiring after four decades of serving his Oakland, CA district. The right-hand of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Miller currently serves as the House Education and Labor Ranking Member and has served at that committee’s Chairman as well.

Miller’s retirement opens up internal politics on who will be the next Democrat to lead the Education and Labor Committee. Rep Steve Rothman is the next senior Democrat on the committee.

Finally, due to House Republican term limits, Chairman Kline will need a waiver in the next Congress to remain Chair (assuming the RS keep the majority).  If not, the next Republican leader of the committee could be Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC).

Monday Morning Spending Bill Update

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Congress continues to make progress on an FY2014 spending plan, and expects to pass and send a $1.012 trillion omnibus package to the president by the end of the week. In the meantime, the House is set to take up a stopgap measure tomorrow that would run through Saturday and make no changes in current funding levels, since the current Continuing Resolution expires on Wednesday. According to House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY), work has been nearly completed on ten of the twelve spending bills and final touches and negotiations are being finalized on the remaining two. Rogers indicated that policy riders are the main challenge holding up talks, and last week Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski stated that they were trying to work through disagreements surrounding riders pertaining to the 2010 health care law and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul. Congressional leaders are expected to unveil the proposed package sometime later today or early tomorrow.

 

FY2014 Omnibus Stalled

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Congressional leaders are trying to finalize a FY2014 omnibus spending package and have agreement on six of the 12 appropriations measures that cover discretionary spending for federal programs. Despite the progress, lingering disagreements are making it increasingly likely that a draft of a final agreement won’t make it to House and Senate leaders until possibly over the weekend. That means Congress could miss a January 15th deadline for final passage and need a short-term stopgap spending measure to avert another government shutdown.

Lawmakers had hoped that the two-year budget deal negotiated by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and approved by Congress in December would allow appropriators to iron out their differences and move quickly on a spending bill. The omnibus bill currently being negotiated will dole out the $1.012 trillion top-line budget number from December’s deal to each of the 12 areas of federal spending.

The six parts that are reportedly completed are the Defense; Agriculture; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Legislative Branch; and Commerce, Justice and Science bills. The Energy-Water and Homeland Security portions of the package are nearing completion. However, talks on other measures – such as Labor-HHS-Education, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and Financial Services – have been complicated by ongoing disagreements such as funding for the 2010 health care law, the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul, and abortion policy.

Surprise! White House Delays Budget Submission

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The White House is said to be at least a month behind its own schedule for developing a FY2015 budget, which by statute is supposed to be submitted to Congress on the first Monday in February. That will slow work on next year’s spending bills, even though the budget accord negotiated by Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) established overall discretionary spending levels.

The Ryan-Murray agreement set the discretionary top line at $1.014 trillion for FY2015, which begins October 1, 2014. Overall, the measure raises discretionary spending by almost $19 billion next year, replacing previously scheduled sequester cuts with a mix of user fees and changes in mandatory spending programs designed to save $85 billion over a decade.

There is no penalty for a late presidential budget submission, but appropriators cannot hold hearings until they have a chance to review the administration’s proposals. Last year, Obama’s budget was released two months late, in early April, a delay that factored into Congress’ failure to clear any FY2014 spending bills this past year.

Source: CQ.com