April 11, 2014
In addition to passing an FY15 budget resolution this week, the House passed HR 1871, a bill to modify budget law to eliminate the baseline assumption that discretionary spending increases annually with inflation, and HR 1872, a bill that would account for the costs of market risks in federal credit programs. The Senate completed work on an unemployment aid package providing five months of emergency unemployment benefits retroactively to late December and through May 31. The Senate also unanimously approved a bill (the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act) to make more data about federal spending publicly available. The bill is expected to pass the House quickly and then head to the President for his signature. While the Senate failed to invoke cloture on S 2199, the Paycheck Fairness Act, the President signed two executive orders to prevent pay discrimination. One requires federal contractors to no longer forbid employees from discussing their pay, while the other directs the Department of Labor to collect aggregate pay information from federal contractors broken down by gender and race.
FY2015 Budget
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) FY15 budget resolution was considered on the House floor this week and passed by a vote of 219 to 205. While there was some concern that conservatives might not back the measure, in the end only 12 Republicans (and all Democrats) voted against it. The resolution proposes to cut $5.1 trillion in spending over 10 years and calls for dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the tax code. It also repeals most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), enacts welfare reforms, and rolls back energy and financial sector regulations. The budget resolution is nonbinding and more of a political statement from House Republicans as it will not be considered in the Senate. Senate Democrats opted to not consider a budget resolutions this year as they contend the Balanced Budget Act passed by Congress last December already sets the overall funding level for FY15.
Five alternative budget plans were offered, considered, and, ultimately, defeated. The alternatives included a Democratic version by Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), President Obama’s FY15 proposal as offered by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), and alternative budgets from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Republican Study Committee.
FY2015 Appropriations
The House Appropriations Committee met this week to mark up the FY15 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon/VA) and Legislative Branch spending bills. The Appropriations Committees normally consider their 302(b) allocations prior to marking up their 12 annual spending bills in committee. However, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said this week that his committee does not have the updated Congressional Budget Office baseline information used for scoring the bills that is necessary for providing accurate suballocations for the bills. Rogers anticipates receiving that updated information on April 17. In the meantime, the committee considered interim 302(b) allocations for these first two bills.
The committee approved by voice vote the $165 billion FY15 MilCon/VA appropriations bill, but first adopted a manager’s amendment offered by subcommittee Chairman John Culberson (R-TX) that would insert provisions and make technical changes to the draft committee report. The committee rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) that would strike a provision to prohibit military construction funds from being used to construct or alter facilities in the United States with the intent of housing detainees from the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The bill provides $6.6 billion for military construction (down $3.2 billion from the $9.8 billion enacted in FY14) and $158.2 billion for the VA (up $10.3 billion over FY14 levels). Both parties are hoping the funding levels provided in FY15 will help the VA in its efforts to reduce its backlog of pending claims. The bill also provides $234 million for related and independent agencies, such as cemetery expenses at Arlington National Cemetery.
The committee also approved the $3.3 billion FY15 Legislative Branch spending bill. The funding level is the same as the FY14 funding level, but $122.5 million less than what the President requested. If enacted, the Government Accountability Office (+$14.2M), the Government Printing Office (+$3.2M), and the Library of Congress (+$15.9M) would receive modest increases. The bill contains $1.2 billion to fund the operations of the House – the same as FY14, and continues restrictions on Representatives and Senators from receiving a pay increase in FY15. The Capitol Police would receive $347 million, about $9.5 million more than current spending, but still below their $356 million request.
Chairman Rogers reiterated his goal of completing committee consideration of all 12 annual appropriations bills before the end of June and passing all spending measures before the August recess. In the Senate, Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., is planning her first markups in May.
As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:
| Appropriations Subcommittee | House Deadline | Senate Deadline |
| Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies | Mar. 31 | Apr. 4 |
| Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies | Mar. 31 | Apr. 11 |
| Defense | Apr. 2 | May 2 |
| Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies | Apr. 2 | Apr. 4 |
| Financial Services and General Government | Apr. 2 | Apr. 11 |
| Homeland Security | Mar. 31 | Apr. 4 |
| Interior | Apr. 4 | Apr. 9 |
| Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies | Apr. 4 | Apr. 4 |
| Legislative Branch | Mar. 17 | Apr. 3 |
| Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies | Mar. 17 | Apr. 10 |
| State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs | Apr. 4 | Apr. 9 |
| Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies | Apr. 2 | Apr. 4 |
FY15 National Defense Authorization Act
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) began the FY15 defense authorization process this week by introducing a “by request bill,” HR 4435. This is the first step in the legislative process for the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes funding for military activities of the Department of Defense, military construction, and defense activities of the Department of Energy, and prescribes military personnel strengths. When the committee meets to mark up the bill later this month/next month, the content of HR 4435 will be struck and replaced with subcommittee and full committee proposals. The markup schedule for the committee is as follows:
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
10:30 AM—Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Markup (Room 2212)
12:00 PM—Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Markup (Room 2118)
1:30 PM—Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces Markup (Room 2212)
3:00 PM—Subcommittee on Military Personnel Markup (Room 2118)
Thursday, May 1, 2014
9:30 AM—Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces Markup (Room 2118)
10:30 AM—Subcommittee on Readiness Markup (Room 2212)
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
10:00 AM—Full Committee Markup (Room 2118)
Defense Unfunded Priorities Lists
Last week the Pentagon released their FY15 unfunded priorities lists totaling almost $34B. The lists are breakdowns from the Army ($10.603B), Navy ($10.0582B), Marines ($2.5483B), Air Force ($7.991B), Special Operations ($400M), and National Guard ($1.5493B) of their wish lists for additional funds to pay for things like maintenance, shore and afloat readiness, recapitalization, installation support, training and personnel costs, facility modernization, critical spares, and weapons systems modernization. Defense Secretary Hagel said that he was publishing the lists in compliance with orders from Congress, but made it clear that he would not lobby for this additional funding. Copies of the lists can be found at:
Army – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=162
Navy – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=163
Marine Corps – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=164
Air Force – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=165
Special Operations – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=166
National Guard – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=167
Cybersecurity
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission issued a formal policy statement on Thursday saying they won’t file antitrust complaints against companies that share information with each other about cyberattacks on their computer systems. Companies were nervous that antitrust laws intended to prevent stifling competition and inflating prices could be violated when discussing information about cyberattacks. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) applauded the announcement but said that cybersecurity legislation is still needed. The policy statement can be found at: https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=168.
Homeland Security
Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), Chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security held a hearing this week with the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in advance of committee consideration of two bills introduced earlier this year that reauthorize CBP (HR 3846) and ICE (HR 4279). Both agencies have never received formal authorization from Congress. The intent of the bills is to give the agencies the proper authorities to carry out their missions. Both bills have bipartisan support, as well as support from the two agencies.
Political Updates
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigned this week after leading the agency through the creation and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. President Obama announced today his intent to nominate OMB director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace Sebelius. Sebelius leaves after the Administration announced 7.5 million people enrolled in “Obamacare,” but she was the face for the Administration while they experienced the technical problems with the implementation late last year. Burwell was confirmed as OMB director in a 96 to 0 vote last April. Her nomination to be HHS Secretary has received support from both sides of the aisle, and will be made easier by the Senate’s change to the filibuster rule that now only requires a simple majority vote instead of 60 votes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet was sworn in this week as administrator of the Small Business Administration. Contreras-Sweet was the executive chairwoman and founder of ProAmérica Bank, a commercial bank focusing on small to mid-sized businesses with a specialty in the Latino community.
The Senate Monday confirmed the nomination of Dr. Reggie Brothers to be DHS Undersecretary for Science and Technology (S&T) and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Frank Taylor to be DHS Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis. Brothers is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research at DoD where he led oversight of DoD’s cyber S&T portfolio. He was also the chair of the DoD S&T Executive Council, which has oversight of the DoD S&T portfolio. Taylor is the former Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security and deputy director for operations in the Directorate of Counterintelligence and Investigative Programs in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
The Senate also confirmed Wanda Felton for a second term as First Vice President and Vice Chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and Terrell McSweeny to be a Federal Trade Commissioner. McSweeny’s nomination returns the FTC to full-strength for the first time in a year and gives the Democrats a 3-2 edge. McSweeny was a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden. And finally, Neil Kornze was confirmed by the Senate as Director of the Bureau of Land Management. Kornze was a Senior Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) from 2003 to 2011.
Next Week
The House and Senate are in recess the next two weeks and will reconvene the week of April 28.