October 30, 2015
The House and Senate passed a budget deal (HR 1314) that lifted the debt ceiling and increased discretionary spending by $80 billion above sequester-level spending caps for FY16 and FY17. The measure passed by a vote of 266 to 167 in the House and a vote of 64 to 35 in the Senate. The House and Senate also passed by voice vote a measure to extend the surface transportation authorization to Nov. 20. The bill gives Congress more time to negotiate a long-term authorization. The Senate passed a six-year authorization in July and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee marked up a long-term bill last week. The House also passed HR 1090, the Retail Investor Protection Act; and HR 597, the Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act. And supporters of the Export-Import Bank in the House invoked a rare parliamentary maneuver to force consideration of a bill to reauthorize the bank, which expired this summer. The bill passed by a vote of 313 to 118. The Senate passed S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act by a vote of 74 to 21.The Senate also passed by unanimous consent S 1731, the Homeless Veterans Services Protection Act, HR 313, the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act; and HR 639, the Improving Regulatory Transparency for New Medical Therapies Act. And the Senate confirmed Sarah Elizabeth Feinberg to be Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration.
House Leadership Elections
Speaker
The House GOP conference met on Wednesday to vote internally to nominate a candidate for Speaker. Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) won the vote in conference with 200 votes. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) received 43 votes from the GOP conference, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) received one vote, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) received one vote. When the full House voted on Thursday, Rep. Ryan received 236 votes to 184 for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), nine for Rep. Webster, one for Rep. Jim Cooper (R-TN), one for Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), and one for General Colin Powell. After being sworn in as the 54th Speaker of the House, Ryan announced his new staff lineup: Chief of Staff, Dave Hoppe; Deputy Chief of Staff, Joyce Meyer; Policy Director, Austin Smythe; and Chief Communications Advisor, Brendan Buck.
Ways and Means Committee Chair
House Speaker Ryan officially resigned the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee after he was elected Speaker. The House GOP Steering Committee will now work to fill that vacancy. The Steering Committee is expected to vote in early November on the nomination of a new chairman. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-PA) are both interested in the leadership position. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) was convinced by Speaker Ryan to not seek the position and to remain as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Under Republican rules, of the total 38 votes in the GOP Steering Committee the Speaker controls five and the Majority Leader has two. All other members of the Steering Committee get one vote. With former Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) resignation, there is now a vacancy on the Steering Committee. The 33 members of the committee select the nominees for vacant chairmanships, subject to approval by the full caucus. Traditionally, Republicans have not challenged the Steering panel recommendations. Speaker Ryan has expressed interest in revamping the Steering committee as well as a broad restructuring of the rules by the end of 2015.
Budget and Debt Ceiling Agreement
In what has been described as a parting gift from outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to incoming Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), the House, Senate, and White House agreed to a budget and debt ceiling deal earlier this week. The deal, HR 1314, was then passed in the House by a vote of 266 to 167 (all nay votes were Republicans) and in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 35 (again, all nay votes were Republicans). The only member not voting was Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who is running for Governor in Louisiana where the runoff is scheduled for Nov. 21. The two-year budget agreement now goes to the President who is expected to sign it.
The agreement raises the discretionary spending caps for FY16 and FY17 by approximately $80 billion and suspends the debt ceiling until March 15, 2017. The measure raises the discretionary spending caps by $50B in FY16 and $30B in FY17 with the spending increases evenly split between defense and nondefense programs. The FY16 defense cap is raised from $523B to $548.1B and the nondefense cap is raised from $493.5B to $518.5B. The agreement also provides $73.5B for Overseas Contingency Operations in FY16 and FY17, which is about $16B/year more than the President requested in his FY16 budget request.
Some of the “pay fors” in the deal include tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (selling 58M barrels of crude oil from the reserve for 8 years starting in FY18), equalizing Medicare rates for physicians (physicians’ practices newly acquired by hospitals would not qualify for higher reimbursements than independent physicians), auctioning off federal spectrum, extending the sequester on Medicare and certain other mandatory spending programs by one year, through FY25, and tax compliance provisions (not tax increases).
Other provisions in the deal include one that would repeal a requirement in the Affordable Care Act for large employers to automatically enroll their employees in health care plans. Another provision would provide relief to Medicare Part B beneficiaries who were expected to see their monthly premiums rise from the current $104.90 to $159.30 in 2016. In the deal, their monthly premiums would only see an estimated $18 increase. The package also includes a series of changes aimed at preventing the exhaustion of the Social Security disability insurance trust fund late next year, including a reallocation of payroll tax revenue between the disability fund and main Social Security fund and various measures aimed at encouraging work and cracking down on fraud and abuse. And finally, the deal included a provision to designate the first floor of the area of the House of Representatives wing of the US Capitol currently known as the small House rotunda as the “Freedom Foyer.”
The passage of the deal now gives the House and Senate Appropriations Committees about six weeks to work out details on an FY16 omnibus measure. The current FY16 Continuing Resolution expires on December 11. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) warned Republicans that Democrats would stick together in opposing any controversial policy riders included the omnibus spending bill.
FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report
The House is scheduled to vote on overriding the President’s veto of the conference agreement on the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act next Thursday, Nov. 5. House Republicans are whipping the votes needed to override the veto. A vetoed bill can become law if 2/3 of the Members voting in each chamber agree, by recorded vote, a quorum being present, to repass the bill. If the House fails to override the veto, the Senate won’t have to consider it. The House typically considers the question of overriding a presidential veto under the hour rule, with the time customarily controlled and allocated by the chair and ranking Member of the committee with jurisdiction over the bill (in this case, the House Armed Services Committee). The Senate usually considers the question of overriding a veto under the terms of a unanimous consent agreement. It has been reported that one of the 10 Republicans who voted against the measure will now vote for overriding the veto, and several others are reconsidering their votes. On the Democratic side, some members who voted for the measure may switch their vote to help the President avoid a potentially embarrassing veto override.
Cybersecurity
The Senate passed S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) this week by a vote of 74 to 21. The legislation is aimed at bolstering the nation’s defenses against hackers. The House passed two cybersecurity bills (HR 1560, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act and HR 1731, the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act) earlier this year by a vote of 307 to 116 and 355 to 63, respectively. The House and Senate will now convene a conference to work out the differences between the three measures. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman and the sponsor of S 754, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said that January is the earliest that they may have a conference agreement. And the bill’s cosponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said that this bill is just the first step. Feinstein would like to see the Senate turn its attention to protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks after they have finished conference on this bill.
Political Updates
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) cast his 15,000th vote on Tuesday, joining an exclusive club in Senate history. Leahy has cast the largest number of votes of any of the Senators now serving, and the sixth most of any Senator in history. The record holder in this category is Sen. Robert C. Byrd who cast 18,689 votes during his tenure from 1959-2010.
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of evading federal bank reporting laws in connection with a scheme to pay hush money to a former associate to cover up and compensate for inappropriate contact with a student while he was a high school teacher and wrestling coach. Hastert entered the plea in front of a federal judge in Chicago. The judge could sentence Hastert to up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of zero to six months in prison. And under a plea bargain with prosecutors, a charge Hastert faced of lying to the FBI will be dropped. Hastert’s sentencing date is set for late February.
Next Week
The House will vote on overriding the President’s veto of the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act and may consider legislation related to the Highway Trust Fund. The Senate will resume consideration of the Federal Water Quality Protection Act (S 1140).