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If at first you don’t succeed, the House will try and pass the Farm Bill (again)

The proverb is clearly something the House lives by. To demonstrate, the House Republican Leadership will attempt to pass the Farm Bill again this week after a disastrous attempt and failure prior to the Fourth of July Recess.

The House is expected to consider a modified version of the bill considered in June. This bill would strip all of the nutrition program portions of the bill, including food stamps, and be straight farm programs. In addition, the new Farm Bill would strip the requirement from the 1949 law that Congress reauthorize or extend the Farm Bill periodically.

Democrats have criticized the measure saying not only is stripping the nutrition programs a nonstarter in the Senate, but such a move would effectively kill the measure in the House if conferenced.

It is unclear if the House Republicans have the 218 votes needed to pass the measure.

Over the July Fourth Recess 532 agriculture-related groups sent a letter to Speaker Boehner opposing any move to strip nutrition programs from the Farm Bill. The coalition letter to Boehner is here.

Senate to Try and Pass Student Loan Interest Bill (again)

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a cloture vote on S. 1238, the Keep Student Loans Affordable Act, which is a measure that would keep the Stafford subsidized interest rate at 3.4 percent for another year. Over 43 Democratic Senators has sponsored the legislation including Senators Murray and Cantwell.

The vote is a cloture vote, which would end the Senate’s debate on the measure and allow the bill a straight up or down vote. A cloture vote requires 60 Senators to agree to end debate, and the legislation is not expected to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.

Despite the anticipated failure of the cloture movement, Senators remain hopeful that some agreement to extend the 3.4 percent interest rate can be reached.

Senate Proposes Increase for NIH

Earlier today the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (L-HHS-ED) Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote an FY14 bill that provides $164.33 billion in discretionary funding for programs under its jurisdiction, $7.8 billion higher than FY13 and above the budget caps established in the Budget Control Act.  No amendments were offered during the subcommittee markup. As you know, the House is advancing its appropriations bills at a $967 billion overall spending cap, while the Senate is working with a $1.058 trillion cap, which does not take into account the sequester. The House allocation for their Labor-HHS bill is much less than the Senate allocation, at only $121.8 billion.

A summary of the bill is up on the Senate Appropriations committee website. A few funding levels highlighted by the subcommittee include:

National Institutes of Health: The bill provides $30.955 billion, an increase of $307 million, to fund biomedical research at the 27 Institutes and Centers that comprise NIH. This level will allow NIH to allocate $40 million for the new Brain Research through Application of Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. Other relevant NIH sections include:

  • Alzheimer’s Disease: The bill includes an $84 million increase for the National Institute on Aging, the NIH Institute with the primary responsibility for preventing, treating, and curing Alzheimer’s disease. The bill also includes $20 million for a new Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative that will strengthen dementia-capable long-term services and supports, assist caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, and train healthcare providers on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s and manage the disease.
  • Public Access to Federally Funded Research: Four years ago, Congress required NIH to improve the public’s ability to access taxpayer-funded research by means of an online NIH repository. This effort has been highly successful. The bill includes a new provision that extends the requirement to other agencies funded in the bill.
  • Accelerating Cures: The bill includes $50 million, five times the FY13 level, for the Cures Acceleration Network, an NIH initiative intended to help speed the translation and application of discoveries that have shown signs of success at the laboratory level but have not advanced far enough to attract significant investments from the private sector.

Centers for Disease Control: The bill includes a program level of $7.023 billion, $475.6 million above FY13. The bill includes $5.8 billion in Budget Authority. Within the CDC appropriation, $20 million is included for the Advanced Molecular Detection and Response to Infectious Disease Outbreak initiative. The Education and Research Centers/AFF Program (NIOSH) is funded at $24.226 million, the same as the FY13 level. We have not seen the report accompanying the bill yet, but understand that the AFF Program is also funded at the FY13 enacted level.

Pell Grants:  The bill maintains the discretionary portion of the maximum Pell grant award level at $4,860 for the 2014/2015 school year but combined with the mandatory funding the maximum award will rise by $140 to $5,785.

Because the House of Representatives has yet to mark up its L-HHS-ED bill, it is impossible to provide a direct comparison. However, the House allocation is $121.8 billion, or 25.9 percent lower than the Senate level. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the L-HHS-ED bill on Thursday morning. We will pass along additional information about what is included in the bill once it is available.

This Week in Congress

An overview of relevant House and Senate committee hearings and markups on the schedule this week:

TUESDAY, July 9th

Senate Appropriations
Fiscal 2014 Appropriations: Labor-HHS
Subcommittee Markup
11 am, 138 Dirksen

House Education and the Workforce
Innovation in Higher Education
Full Committee Hearing
10 am, 2175 Rayburn

WEDNESDAY, July 10th

House Appropriations
Fiscal 2014 Appropriations: Commerce, Justice, Science
Subcommittee Markup
11 am, H-140 Capitol Building

House Science, Space, and Technology
NASA Authorization Act
Subcommittee Markup
10 am, 2318 Rayburn

THURSDAY, July 11th

Senate Appropriations
Fiscal 2014 Appropriations: Labor-HHS
Full Committee Markup
10 am, 106 Dirksen

Sequester: DoD to Start Civilian Furloughs

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) will begin implementing civilian furloughs to 650,000 civilian employees at installations across the country. The furloughs amount to a 20 percent cut in pay over the next three months. This means most furloughed employees face one day without pay for each week through the end of September.

Initially, the Pentagon projected that civilian employees would need to take 22 furlough days to meet its sequester targets. However, Secretary of Defense Hagel announced in May that the number would be reduced to 11 days.

Many federal agencies have managed to avoid furloughs and layoffs, but the DoD decided it could not meet the mandated cuts without them. The furloughs are projected to save approximately $1.8 billion

While furloughed, workers are prohibited from performing any work-related assignments while away from their jobs.

The furloughs could bolster the arguments of workers and lawmakers who oppose sequestration, tipping the scales against the automatic cuts. Or they could roll out with a whimper, further solidifying the cuts as a long-term fiscal reality for the Pentagon.

In other defense news, the Senate is beginning to focus on how the department will proceed in the next fiscal year.

Continue reading “Sequester: DoD to Start Civilian Furloughs”