December 11, 2015

The House and Senate passed by voice vote a five-day FY16 continuing resolution (HR 2250) funding the federal government through December 16, which the President said he would sign. The House also passed the conference agreement to HR644, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015; HR 158, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015; HR 3842, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers Reform and Improvement Act of 2015; HR 2130, the Red River Private Property Protection Act; HR 3578, the DHS Science and Technology Reform and Improvement Act of 2015; and HR 2795, the First Responder Identification of Emergency Needs in Disaster Situations or FRIENDS Act. The Senate passed the conference report to accompany S 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act, by a vote of 85 to 12, which President Obama signed into law on Thursday. The Senate passed by unanimous consent S 1719, the RAISE Family Caregivers Act; HR 2820, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act; S 142, the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act; S993, the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act; S 209, the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act Amendments; S 2308, the Church Plan Clarification Act; and S 2393, a bill to extend temporarily the extended protection for members of uniformed services relating to mortgage foreclosure and eviction. The Senate also confirmed Linda Etim to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Richard Howorth to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Cherry Ann Murray to be Director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy, Eric Eberhard to be a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, and Darryl DePriest to be Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the Small Business Administration.

FY16 Omnibus Appropriations Negotiations Continue

With the deadline of the current continuing resolution (CR) looming, the House and Senate passed a five-day CR funding the government through December 16. Negotiations will continue over the weekend, but are proceeding at a “snails pace” according to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY).

While funding levels appear to be settled, there are still several other items outstanding. Republicans are trying to use the $1.1T omnibus bill as a vehicle for a number of policy riders including ones suspending the immigration of 10,000 Syrian refugees, rejecting a joint EPA-Army Corps of Engineers rule on the Waters of the United States, relaxing restrictions on coordination between political parties and candidates, ending the crude oil export ban, extending congressional authority over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, exempting community banks under a certain size from Dodd-Frank regulations, shielding E-cigarette manufacturers from an FDA approval process, undoing a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board that redefines the board’s standard for determining joint employer status, and providing legal standing for businesses and organizations that provide health insurance to sue a government entity that punishes them if they refuse to provide access to abortion-related services. Democrats are considering accepting the provision repealing the ban on crude oil exports in exchange for some of their priorities including the removal of environmental riders, a reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and extensions of tax credits for renewables, energy efficiency measures, and tax breaks targeted to East Coast oil refiners.

In order for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) to abide by his promise that he would not waive the three-day rule, the omnibus package will have to be posted and made available to members by Monday for passage by Wednesday’s deadline.

Tax Extenders

Negotiations over an $800B tax extenders have been proceeding, but prospects for a permanent extension of expiring tax breaks are dimming. Republicans may consider scaling back the cost of the package to get more support for it. At the same time, they are trying to build consensus for a two-year extension that would not include any offsetting spending cuts. The two-year extension would cost around $108.4B and would extend many of the tax breaks through 2016. Part of the opposition to the permanent tax extension deal is coming from Democrats who are balking at the cost of the package without offsets. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been pushing for inclusion of provision that would index the Child Tax Credit to inflation so that it would not lose value over time. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that as of now the House would consider tax extenders and the FY16 omnibus appropriations bill as separate measures, but that no final decision has been made.

Budget Reconciliation

The Senate passed a budget reconciliation measure last week by a vote of 52 to 47. The measure (HR 3762) repeals most of the Affordable Care Act, and also denies federal funding for one year for Planned Parenthood. The House was expected to consider the measure this week, but instead chose to defer action until January when they may be able to get more public attention. Republicans hope to use the vote as a political wedge in the 2016 election year cycle. The vote is largely symbolic, as the President has promised to veto the measure if it reaches his desk and Republicans don’t have the 2/3 majority needed to override his veto.

House Republican Steering Committee

House Republicans elected six new members to the House Republican Steering Committee to serve as at large representatives for the remainder of the 114^th Congress. The GOP lawmakers elected Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) of the Tuesday Group, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL). The Steering Committee is the panel that determines committee assignments and chairmanships.

Political Updates

House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Ed Cassidy submitted his resignation on Monday, which is effective at the end of this year. Cassidy is looking to retire from federal service altogether early next year. Will Plaster will serve as Interim Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. The CAO provides support for members of Congress and their staffs on matters ranging from payroll to parking and office furniture.

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) launched his campaign to replace Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who is retiring after this term following a failed gubernatorial bid. Fleming, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, is expected to face Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), who has said he is running for Vitter’s seat but has yet to formally announce. Fleming has held his north Louisiana congressional seat since 2009.

President Obama nominated Marcela Escobari to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Charlotte Kessler and Esperanza Emily Spalding to be Members of the National Council on the Arts, Andrew Mayock to be Deputy Director for Management in the Office of Management and Budget, Edith Ramirez to be Commissioner and Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Alan Kreczko and James White to be Members of the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board, and John Kirby to be Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of State.

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) circulated a letter to each of her colleagues this week asking for their support in her bid to be the Democratic Caucus vice chairwoman for the 115^th Congress. Sanchez is the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and is ranking democrat on the Ethics Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee. The current caucus vice chairman, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), is term limited in 2017 and is expected to seek election as caucus chairman succeeding Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) who is also term limited. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) is also seeking the vice chairman position.

Next Week

The House and Senate will have to take up either an FY16 omnibus appropriations agreement or another continuing resolution as the current funding agreement expires at midnight on December 16. The House will also consider tax extenders and an omnibus appropriations bill. The Senate will consider the nominations of Alissa Starzak to be General Counsel of the Department of the Army, John Conger to be a Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Stephen Welby to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Franklin Parker to be an Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

December 4, 2015

The House passed HR 4127, the Intelligence Authorization Act; S1170, the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Reauthorization Act; and HR 8, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act. The House also passed two conference reports – S1177, the conference report to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and HR 22, the conference report to authorize funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs. The Senate also passed the highway bill conference report, so it now goes to the President for his signature. The House passed two resolutions – SJRes 23, providing for Congressional disapproval of a rule submitted by the EPA relating to “Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources” and SJRes 24, providing for congressional disapproval of a rule submitted by the EPA relating to “Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units.” The Senate has already passed both resolutions, so they now go to the President who has vowed to veto the measures. The Senate passed HR 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 and S 1698, the Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act. The Senate also confirmed Gayle Smith to be Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.

FY16 Omnibus Appropriations Negotiations Continue

Lawmakers left DC this week not having reached agreement on a final FY16 omnibus spending bill and frustrated by partisan differences. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) met with his Republican conference on Thursday and characterized the impasse as a “crap sandwich.” Democrats were also unhappy with the process saying that the Republican proposal was a “tea party wish list” with over 30 policy riders that Democrats consider poison pills. Earlier this week, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said that he had hoped to file the text of an omnibus bill on Monday to allow for passage by December 11 when the current continuing resolution expires. Chairman Rogers reiterated that hope later in the week.

Negotiations between the House and Senate over the funding levels for seven of the 12 bills are nearly complete, with the three most contentious bills still in flux (Interior, Financial Services, and Labor HHS), but policy rider disputes are still the main threat to the omnibus. The potential riders include the treatment of Syrian refugees, amending Dodd-Frank financial regulations, campaign finance restrictions, defunding Planned Parenthood, blocking the Labor Department’s fiduciary duty rule, overturning the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Waters of the US rule, blocking President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and carbon standards, modifying or restricting spending under the Affordable Care Act, barring FCC enforcement of net neutrality rules, lifting the ban on crude oil exports, and restricting relations with Cuba. The Syrian refugee issue could be resolved by the bipartisan compromise legislation introduced by Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) this week that the House will consider next week. All of the other policy rider issues are likely to be dealt with in the 11th hour and behind closed doors.

If Congress can’t get an omnibus done by December 11, leaders of both parties and the White House have indicated that they would accept a short-term (a few days to a week) CR giving them enough time to complete the omnibus and avoid a shutdown. Whether or not they finish it by the 11th or the next week depends on the desire of members to leave next week or the following week. Negotiations are continuing this weekend.

Highway, Transit, and Rail Conference Bill Passes

The House and Senate both passed a five-year transportation infrastructure reauthorization bill, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which now heads to the President for his signature. The Senate passed the conference report by a vote of 83 to 16 (2 Democrats and 14 Republicans voted against the bill) while the House passed it by a vote of 359 to 65 (all 65 nay votes were from Republicans).

The $305B bill sets federal policy and funding levels for highways, transit, passenger rail, and bridge programs. With the Highway Trust Fund only expected to generate $208B over the five years from the gas tax, the rest of the bill was paid for with General Fund revenues, with most of that coming from reducing the size of the Federal Reserve surplus account.

The bill also reauthorizes Amtrak and the expired Export-Import Bank. But while the bank has been reauthorized, its lending cap has been reduced from $140B to $135B and only two of the five seats on the EXIM’s Board are filled. Without a quorum, the agency can’t approve loans for greater than $10M. While bigger loans are less than 20% of the bank’s transactions, they make up an overwhelming majority of the bank’s total financing. So the bank’s supporters will have to gear up for another potential fight over nominations next year.

FAST Act Bill Text:

http://transportation.house.gov/uploadedfiles/crpt-114hrpt-hr22.pdf

FAST Act Joint Explanatory Statement:

http://transportation.house.gov/uploadedfiles/joint_ex.pdf

Department of Defense Announcement on Women in Combat Jobs

Department of Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced yesterday that all military combat jobs would be open to women at the beginning of 2016. The policy change will allow women to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALS, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers, and in other roles that were previously open only to men. The Secretary directed all military services to formulate implementation plans for integrating women into these positions 30 days from December 3. The 30-day waiting period is required by law. The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees released a joint statement in response to the announcement stating that they will utilize the 30-day period to review the implications of the decision, including the Department’s views on any changes to the Selective Service Act that may be required as a result of this decision. The announcement from the Pentagon on Thursday did not include any requirement that females register with the Selective Service when they turn 18, like males currently are required to do.

Cybersecurity Conference Report

House and Senate staff continue negotiations over cybersecurity information sharing legislation. The Senate passed S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act in late October and 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. There is a chance that a conference agreement could be released early next week and voted on before Congress adjourns for the year. Reports are that a conference bill is drafted and industry input has been given on the draft.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Enacted Into Law

On November 25, President Obama signed the $607B National Defense Authorization Act into law despite his opposition to restrictions in the bill that ban him from moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States.

House Leadership Memo

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) sent a memo to his Whip Team earlier this week in which he asks members to vote for bills that they vote no on even though they actually hope the bill passes as they know the outcome will be even worse if they bill fails.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise”s memo:

http://static.politico.com/d2/77/c90f3fbf4496bc37c8846b009ecb/scalise.pdf

Political Updates

After losing the race to become Louisiana’s next governor, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) announced that he would complete his term but not seek re-election to the Senate in 2016. Reps. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-LA) and John Fleming (R-LA) both said they would run for Vitter’s seat, but New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced this week that he would not run for the seat.

Department of Defense Secretary Ash Carter tapped Marine Corps Brigadier General Eric Smith to be his new senior military assistant. Smith replaces Army Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis who Secretary Carter fired amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Smith is a graduate of Texas A&M, has fought in Operation Desert Storm, and was deployed to Iraq twice. He has been the commander of the US Marine Corps Forces, South for the past five months.

The Department of Defense Inspector General, Jon Rymer, is resigning from government in early January after having served 30 years in the military and in the federal civilian service. The office’s Principal Deputy IG, Glenn Fine, will serve as Acting Inspector General once Rymer officially departs on January 8.

Christopher “Kappy” Kapellas has been assigned as Director of Human Resources Directorate at the Department of Defense. Kapellas previously served as the Deputy Director of the Human Resources Directorate.

Carnegie Mellon Professor of Computer Science, Engineering, and Public Policy Lorrie Faith Cranor has been named Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission. Cranor is replacing Ashkan Soltani who took up the post a year ago, but had only committed to staying at the commission for a year. Cranor was previously a researcher at AT&T Labs Research and has also taught at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has named Roderick (Rod) Allison as Acting Deputy Administrator. Allison will temporarily fill the position left bacant by the departure of Mark Hatfield. Before being named Acting Deputy Administration, Allison served as the TSA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Law Enforcement and Director of the Federal Air Marshal Service.

FBI Director James Comey has named Randall Coleman Executive Assistant Director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch at FBI headquarters. In this position, Coleman will oversee all FBI criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, international operations, critical incident response, and victim assistance.  He most recently served as Assistant Director of the counterintelligence division beginning in April 2014.

Next Week

The House will take up a bill to tighten the visa waiver program (HR 158) as well as HR 2130, the Red River Private Property Protection Act; HR 644, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015; and a bill to extend certain provisions of the Tax Code. Additionally, it is possible that the House will consider an omnibus appropriations act and budget reconciliation. The White House this week said that it is “pleased” by the House-crafted bipartisan visa waiver program overhaul bill, and that it believes the legislation “would make our country safer.” The Senate will take up the conference report to to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which the House adopted earlier this week. The Senate may also consider an omnibus appropriations bill.

November 20, 2015

The House and Senate passed a short-term bill reauthorizing surface transportation programs through December 4, and the President signed the measure before the current authorization expired today. The House passed HR 511, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2015; HR 1201, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act; HR 1737, the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act; and HR 3189, the Fed Oversight Reform and Modernization (FORM) Act of 2015. The House also passed HR 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act with a veto-proof majority (the White House has issued a veto threat for the bill). The measure would enhance the vetting procedures for Iraqi and Syrian refugees. The Senate passed two joint resolutions providing for congressional disapproval of two rules submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to “Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units” and “Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units.” The White House said the President would veto the latter resolution. The Senate also passed by unanimous consent HR 2297, the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015, and confirmed Peter William Bodde, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to Libya. The Senate began consideration of the FY16 Transportation HUD appropriations bill but abandoned the effort before leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday. Finally, the Senate agreed to go to conference on the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (S 1177), and the conference committee agreed 38 to 1 to advance a final package that would give state and local leaders more control over education decisions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted no by proxy.

FY16 Appropriations

The current continuing resolution funding the government expires on December 11. House and Senate Appropriations committees have been working on an FY16 omnibus spending bill and negotiations are ongoing. An omnibus bill is likely to be released during the week of Dec. 7. Currently the biggest holdups are possible inclusion of language regarding funding for Syrian refugees, dividing up the $30B spending increase both sides have agreed to in principle, environmental policy riders, crop insurance subsidies, and policy riders pushing back Dodd-Frank financial regulations. Senate Appropriations Ranking Democrat Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said that they are also waiting to hear from the President about any supplemental funding needs post-Paris attacks. And new House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said this week that he would like to move permanent business and individual tax breaks extensions in the final omnibus.

This week, House Republican leaders held a series of listening sessions getting GOP members’ input on the spending bills. While it is unclear how much of an impact these sessions will have on the final omnibus, they did buy the new leadership team some goodwill by making members part of the process.

Republicans have discussed including policy riders in the omnibus, while Democrats have promised to stand firm against them. This week a group of 165 House Democrats sent a letter to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) and other House leaders calling for an FY16 omnibus spending bill without riders. Republicans are aware that they will need the support and votes of some Democrats to carry the final package, and therefore, may resist the urge to overload the legislation with contentious provisions.

House Democrat Letter re: FY16 Omnibus and Policy Riders:

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=529

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report

The House adopted a Senate resolution making technical corrections to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act, including changing the formal title of the bill, fixing spelling errors (mostly dealing with Ukraine), and replacing one of the bill’s funding tables. The bill was then enrolled and sent to the President for his signature.

New Ways and Means Committee Chairs and Members

The House Ways and Means Committee did a bit of reshuffling this week after Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) moved to take the gavel of the Health Subcommittee. Tiberi lost to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) in his bid to succeed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) as chairman of the full committee. Brady had been the chair of the Health subcommittee, the panel that presides over issues including Medicare, Medicaid, drug prices, and efforts to rollback provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) was selected to fill the vacancy on the committee. And the Committee adopted new rules that 1) increased the size of the Health subcommittee by one Republican member and one Democrat member, 2) renamed the Subcommittee on Select Measures as the Subcommittee on Tax Policy, and 3) increased the size of the Subcommittee on Tax Policy by two Republican members and one Democrat member.

The new Republican subcommittee chairs and members are as follows:

Health


Chairman Tiberi – OH

Mr. Johnson – TX

Mr. Nunes – CA

Mr. Roskam – IL

Mr. Price – GA

Mr. Buchanan – FL

Mr. A. Smith – NE

Ms. Jenkins – KS

Mr. Marchant – TX

Ms. Black – TN

Mr. Paulsen – MN

Trade


Chairman Reichert – WA

Mr. Nunes – CA

Mr. A. Smith – NE

Ms. Jenkins – KS

Mr. Boustany – LA

Mr. Paulsen – MN

Mr. Marchant – TX

Mr. Young – IN

Mr. Kelly – PA

Mr. Meehan – PA

Tax Policy


Chairman Boustany – LA

Mr. Reichert – WA

Mr. Tiberi – OH

Mr. Reed – NY

Mr. Young – IN

Mr. Kelly – PA

Mr. Renacci – OH

Ms. Noem – SD

Mr. Holding – NC

Oversight


Chairman Roskam – IL

Mr. Meehan – PA

Mr. Holding – NC

Mr. J. Smith – MO

Mr. Reed – NY

Mr. Rice – SC

Mr. Marchant – TX

Human Resources


Chairman Buchanan – FL

Ms. Noem – SD

Mr. J. Smith – MO

Mr. Dold – IL

Mr. Rice – SC

Mr. Reed – NY

Mr. Reichert – WA

Social Security


Chairman Johnson – TX

Mr. Dold – IL

Mr. Buchanan – FL

Mr. A. Smith – NE

Mr. Kelly – PA

Mr. Renacci – OH

Mr. Rice – SC

House Republican Steering Committee Changes

House Republicans passed changes to overhaul the membership and operation of its Steering Committee by voice vote on Thursday. The Steering Committee assigns Republican members to the House committees. The biggest change Republicans adopted was the elimination of the six committee (Rules, Financial Services, Ways and Means, Budget, Appropriations, and Energy and Commerce) chairmen who currently have seats on the Steering Committee. Until the end of 2016, these chairmen will be replaced by six “at-large” members elected by the GOP conference by secret ballot. The candidates who receive the most votes will be on the Steering Committee. The vote has not been scheduled yet but will take place in 2015. After 2016, the six “at-large” members will be replaced by six regional representatives. Other changes adopted include adding one “rotating committee chairman” slot to be occupied by any chairman whose committee membership is under consideration by the Steering committee, and adding one slot to be filled at the discretion of the Speaker to address gaps in representation (women, Freedom Caucus representatives, etc.). Finally, for the first time, House Republican leadership would be required to make the Steering Committee roster public.

Political Updates

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal dropped out of the Republican Presidential primary race this week after struggling to gain traction in the crowded field of candidates.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Deputy Administrator Mark Hatfield announced his retirement this week as well as his new role as the Chief Security Officer for Miami International Airport. Hatfield worked at the TSA for 13 years taking over as Deputy Administrator in January 2015.

President Obama announced the following nominations this week: Hester Maria Peirce for reappointment as a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Philip Cullom to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment at the Department of Defense; Swati Dandekar to be United States Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank; Harry Hoglander to be a Member of the National Mediation Board; Daniel Maffei to be a Commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission; Georgette Mosbacher to be a Member of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy; and Patrick Pizzella to be a Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

William LaPlante and Heidi Shyu, the top acquisition officials from the Air Force and Army, both announced this week that they will be stepping down from their positions. LaPlante announced his departure in an email writing that he would leave at the end of November and return to the MITRE Corp where he worked before going to the Pentagon. Shyu said that she would retire at the end of January. Frank Kendall, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, has said that he plans to stay in his post until the end of the Obama Administration.

Jimmy Panetta, son of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, announced his campaign for Congress this week. Panetta is running for the 20^th Congressional District seat, which is being vacated by retiring Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) at the end of 2016.

Jeffrey Chen joined the Commerce Department as Chief Data Scientist this week to lead the projects for the Commerce Data Service, a newly launched internal startup that harnesses the power of data science. Chen is a former Presidential Innovation Fellow who worked for NASA’s Climate Data Initiative. He has also worked in the Office of Science and Technology Policy as well as the New York Fire Department. He was most recently the data scientist in residence at Georgetown University.

Next Week

The House and Senate are in recess next week and will return the week of November 30.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of your family and friends!

November 13, 2015

The House was in recess this week. The Senate passed the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill and the revised FY16 National Defense Authorization Act, which now goes to the President for his signature. The Senate passed by unanimous consent S 1203, the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act; HR 2262, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act; and S 2280, the POWER Act. The Senate also agreed to go to conference with the House on a six-year highway and transit authorization bill. And the Senate confirmed Scott Allen to be U.S. Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

FY16 Appropriations

While the Senate was not able to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on the FY16 Defense spending bill last week, they were able to consider and pass the FY16 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs this week. The $79.74B bill (HR 2029) passed by a vote of 93 to 0. The bill will likely serve as the legislative vehicle for the anticipated FY16 omnibus spending bill. The Senate may next turn to its $55.65B FY16 Transportation HUD spending bill for consideration on the floor.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report

The Senate passed the adjusted FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (S 1356) by a vote of 91 to 3. The three “no” votes in the Senate on the legislation came from Sens. Merkley (D-OR), Sanders (I-VT), and Wyden (D-OR). And the four GOP Presidential candidates (Cruz, Graham, Paul, and Rubio) missed the vote in addition to Sens. Heller (R-NV) and Vitter (R-LA).

The House passed the measure last week. While the bill is now poised to go to the President for his signature, the House needs to adopt a resolution making technical corrections to the bill. The Senate adopted a resolution instructing clerks handling the bill’s enrollment to make technical corrections, which include changing the formal title of the bill, fixing spelling errors (mostly dealing with Ukraine), and replacing one of the bill’s funding tables. The House is expected to make the corrections next week allowing the President to sign the bill sometime before the end of the month.

Political Updates

Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) is reported to be eyeing the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chair that Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) vacated when he was chosen for chair of the full Ways and Means Committee. This may set off a bit of reshuffling as Tiberi is currently the chair of the Trade Subcommittee. Brady is interested in filling the vacant subcommittee chairmanships next week.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) announced last Friday that he will not seek re-election in 2016. Pitts was first elected in 1996, and has chaired the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee since 2011. State Senator Lloyd Smucker announced that he is running to replace Pitts. And Reps. Sam Farr (D-CA) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) announced this week that they would retire when their terms end in 2017. Farr is a member of the House Appropriations Committee holding the ranking member position on the Agriculture subcommittee. Lummis is on the Natural Resources and Oversight and Government Reform committees and is the only female member of the House Freedom Caucus. Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s eldest daughter, Liz Cheney, said she is seriously considering running for Lummis’ seat. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) is expected to announce his retirement today. Hinojosa is on the Education and the Workforce and Financial Services committees.

And speaking of the House Freedom Caucus, they are scheduled to elect their new chairman Monday night. This will be the caucus’ second election since its founding. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to win re-election.

Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) drew a primary challenge Monday from businessman Curtis Coleman of Little Rock, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nominations for Senate in 2010 and governor in 2014.

President Obama nominated Beth Cobert to be Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Cobert has been “Acting” Director since Katherine Archuleta resigned in July.

The White House is bringing on Jason Schultz, a New York University law professor and former Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney, to serve as a senior adviser to Megan Smith, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Schultz will advise Smith on intellectual property and innovation focusing on patent and digital copyright issues.

Brian Burns is taking over as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Burns takes over for Dan Galick, who was serving as Acting CISO since Stan Lowe retired in August. Burns most recently served as Deputy Director of the Joint VA-Defense Department Interagency Program Office (IPO) charged with improving interoperability between the two agencies’ electronic health record system. Burns will retain his IPO responsibilities as he takes on the added role of implementing the VA’s cybersecurity strategy.

President Obama withdrew the nomination of Kenneth Kopocis to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. His nomination was originally sent to the Senate on June 24, 2015. Kopocis retired this month as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water at the EPA concluding 32 years of public service. His departure comes as the EPA is involved in the battle over its Waters of the U.S. regulation, and it will set off a leadership reorganization at EPA. Joel Beauvais will take on Kopocis’ job as EPA’s Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, Laura Vaught will fill Beauvais’ old job as Acting Associate Administrator for EPA’s Office of Policy, and Nicole Distefano will take over Vaught’s job as Acting Associate Administrator for EPA’s Office of Congressional Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter removed Army Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis from his post Thursday morning amid allegations of misconduct. Lewis has been serving as the senior military assistant to Secretary Carter and routinely accompanied him on his trips abroad. The matter has been referred to the Defense Department’s Inspector General for an official investigation.

Next Week

The House will consider HR 1737, the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act; HR 3189, the FORM Act of 2015; and HR 1210, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, which eases some mortgage lending standards set by the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul. The Senate may take up the FY16 Transportation HUD appropriations bill.

November 6, 2015

The House passed a more than $325B six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill by a vote of 363 to 64, and agreed to a bicameral conference on the legislation. The bill includes a provision to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. The current authorization expires on Nov. 20. The House also passed under suspension of the rules a revised FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (S 1356) by a vote of 370 to 58. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration early next week. The Senate rejected two cloture motions on S 1140, the Federal Water Quality Protection Act (vote 58 to 41) and HR 2685, the FY16 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (vote 51 to 54). The Senate did invoke cloture on HR 2029, the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. And the Senate passed a joint resolution (SJ Res 22) providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Finally, ending a seven year review process, President Obama announced this morning that he was rejecting the request from a Canadian company to build the 1,179 mile Keystone XL oil pipeline. The President said his decision was based on his belief that the pipeline would not make a long-term, meaningful contribution to our economy and would not lower gas prices for American consumers.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Election

Ways and Means Committee Chair

The House Republican Steering Committee tapped Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) as the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee filling the vacancy left by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI). The House 33-member GOP steering committee chose Brady over Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) as the next chair of the powerful tax-writing committee. Tiberi may be offered the top GOP position on the Joint Economic Committee (replacing Brady) as a “consolation prize.” And with Brady now at the helm of the committee, this opens up the chair of the Health subcommittee. The GOP has a seniority-based bidding system for the vacancy. If a current subcommittee chair opts to switch to the Health subcommittee, this could set off a ripple effect of reshuffling.

FY16 Appropriations

The President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 on Monday. With the discretionary spending caps now set for FY16 and FY17, Congress began work on their FY16 bills. The Senate took up the FY16 Defense Appropriations bill but could not get the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture. Senate Democrats blocked the bill to use it as future leverage to ensure that Republicans pass all of the FY16 spending bills.

During the debate on the Senate floor over the defense spending bill, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said that there was an “understanding” of how they would move forward on the FY16 appropriations bills. The “understanding” led to Democrats allowing consideration in the Senate of the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. Cloture was invoked on that bill by a vote of 93 to 0. The agreement to let this bill proceed may be a procedural maneuver to allow a legislative vehicle for a potential omnibus measure to move forward at the same time showing a gesture of goodwill prior to the omnibus negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he hopes to finish consideration of the MilCon/VA bill by Tuesday evening. The chairman of the MilCon/VA Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) offered a substitute amendment to reflect the new budget agreement funding levels. The substitute amendment recommends a total of $79.7B in discretionary funding, a more than $2.1B increase over the committee-reported bill.

Yesterday the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairs learned of their revised allocations, which were developed by the House and Senate Appropriations chairmen with input from the ranking members. While there is agreement on the budget caps for each subcommittee, one last issue could still force a government shutdown when the current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 11 – policy riders. Speaker Ryan has not ruled out including policy riders in an omnibus appropriations bill. And Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said that a policy rider on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) could surface in the omnibus spending bill. House and Senate Democrats as well as the White House would oppose the inclusion of these riders. Stay tuned!

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report

The House and Senate opted to forgo veto override votes for the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Instead, the House took up S 1356 and amended it to include an FY16 NDAA that had been adjusted to account for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The $5B adjustments impacted more than 100 separate programs including the Syrian train and equip program, the Air Force’s next generation strategic bomber, Army readiness, and the Counterterrorism Partnership Fund. The adjusted FY16 NDAA passed the House by a vote of 370 to 58 and now heads to the Senate for consideration. Despite the inclusion of restrictions on closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the President is likely to sign the measure.

S 1356 Bill Text:

http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=27E9F5EB-757A-4BF2-B807-333B6BD6A627

S 1356 Report Language:

http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=E0B05DFB-B970-4D0C-92EA-26FD566B7E3B

FY16 NDAA Adjustments List:

http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=61603558-B545-4B27-A3F2-D02E38B01F2F

Homeland Security Science & Technology Advisory Committee

The Department of Homeland Security appointed 28 new members to the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee (HSSTAC). The HSSTAC provides scientific and technical advice to the DHS Secretary and senior department leadership on matters related to the expansion of technological capabilities across the homeland security enterprise.

The HSSTAC members are selected from disciplines within the following fields of expertise: Organizational Strategy and Management; First Responders; Cybersecurity/Risk; Cross-Cutting Technical Expertise; and Chemical and Biological Defense. The 28 new HSSTAC members will join the six current members on the committee. All members serve two-year terms on the committee.

The 28 new members are:

Organization Strategy and Management

James R. Brigham, Jr., corporate director of simMachines, Inc.

Herbert Lee Buchanan, President/CEO of Arete Associates

James F. Decker, Principal and Co-Founder of Decker, Garman, Sullivan and Associates, LLC.

Michael J. Goldblatt, CEO of Aixxia, LLC

Annie McKee, founder of Teleos Leadership Institute

Brock C. Reeve, Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute

John A. Sims, Executive Director of External Relations for Academic Affairs at Bentley University

David A. Whelan, Vice President of Engineering for Boeing Defense, Space and Security

Roy A. Wiggins, Dean of Business, Professor of Finance, and Director of the Bentley Microfinance Initiative at Bentley University

Christina C. Williams, Associate Provost for Administration and Finance at Brandeis University

First Responder

1. Keith Bryant isan emergency medical technician and member of the

Oklahoma City Fire Department. He is the current President of the

International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Murray “Jay” Farr is the Deputy Chief of Police in the Arlington County,

Va. Police Department.

Gary W. Schenkel is Executive Director of the Chicago Office of Emergency

Management and Communications and oversees the Public Safety Consortium,

which brings together local, state, and federal partners to plan and

coordinate emergency response.

James Schwartz is the Chief of the Arlington County, Va. Fire Department.

Cybersecurity/Risk

Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google

Vincent W. S. Chan, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT

James A. Hendler, Director of the Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web, and Cognitive Sciences at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Cross Cutting Technical Expertise

Philip E. Coyle, Senior Science Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

William P. Crowell, partner with Alsop Louie Partners

Daniel Dubno, developer of Keyhole

Yacov Y. Haimes, Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Systems and Information Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Founding Director of the Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems at the University of Virginia

Eric Haseltine, President of Haseltine Partners LLC

Karim R. Lakhani, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and Principal Investigator of the Crowd Innovation Lab and NASA Tournament Lab at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Mark T. Maybury, Chief Technology Officer of the MITRE Corp

Brian C. Toohey, Executive Vice President of DEKA Research and Development Corp

Theodore Lawrence Willke II, Senior Principal Engineer for Intel Labs

Chemical and Biological Defense

Kathie L. Olsen, Founder and Managing Director of ScienceWorks

Gerald W. Parker, Vice President for Public Health Preparedness and Response, and principal investigator for the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.

Political Updates

Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary contest this week, citing a change to the party’s debate rules.

Next week’s Republican Presidential debate by Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal will have a few less familiar faces on stage at the 9 pm main event. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former New York Governor George Pataki, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore all failed to make the cut for the main stage and instead will debate at the 6 pm undercard debate. The eight candidates on the main stage are: Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) received a primary challenger this week when Iraq War veteran Jonathan McConnell announced that he would challenge the five-term Republican senator. McConnell founded Meridian.us, a global maritime security company. Shelby, who is 81, has more than $19M in his campaign account and confirmed earlier this year that he is running for re-election. Given how “red” the state is, whoever wins the March 1 primary will likely win the seat in November.

Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL) announced this week that he won’t seek re-election in 2016. Nugent cited a desire to spend more time with his family as a chief factor in his decision to retire next year. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), whose district became considerably more Democratic in the most recent round of redistricting, is considering a run to succeed Nugent, although Nugent has already endorsed his chief of staff, Justin Grabelle, to replace him

Ohio Governor John Kasich set the special election date for the seat vacated by former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for June 7. The primary election will be held on March 15, the same day as the state’s presidential primary. The winner would serve the remainder of the term, and a full-time replacement would be decided in the next general election. GOP candidates include state Rep. Tim Derickson, Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds, state Sen. Bill Beagle, and Troy teacher J.D. Winteregg.

The House and Senate released their FY16 calendars this week:

House:

http://www.majorityleader.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2016_ANNUAL_CALENDAR.pdf

Senate:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/2016_schedule.htm

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) appointed Clifton Triplett as the new Senior Cyber and Information Technology Advisor. Triplett’s role will be to help upgrade OPM’s network infrastructure and cybersecurity, and he will report directly to Beth Cobert, OPM’s Acting Director. Triplett, a military veteran, comes to OPM with 30 years of cross-industry and IT organizational transformation experience. Before joining OPM, he was a managing partner at SteelPointe Partners, a global management consulting company.

Mark Day, the General Services Administration’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Integrated Technology Services office in the Federal Acquisition Service, retired from the federal government on Oct. 30. Kathleen Turco, the Chief Financial Officer for the Veterans Health Administration also announced her plans to retire as of Dec. 30. And Health and Human Services Chief Information Officer Frank Baitman told his staff this week that he is leaving as of Nov. 30.

FBI Director James Comey named Gregory D. Cox as the Assistant Director of the Critical Incident Response Group in Quantico, VA and Carlos Cases as the Assistant Director of International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington DC.

Christine Harada, the General Services Administration’s Associate Administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Policy and Acting Chief of Staff, is moving to the White House. Harada will become the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at the Council on Economic Quality (CEQ) on Nov. 16.

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) portrait was quietly removed from the Speaker’s lobby this week. Last week, Hastert pleaded guilty in a hush-money scheme. Hastert’s portrait was replaced by a portrait of Frederick H. Gillett, a Massachusetts Republican who served as a speaker from 1919 to 1925.

Next Week

The House is in recess next week. The Senate will resume consideration of the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill on Monday and will vote on the revised FY16 National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday. The Senate will also hold a confirmation vote on the nomination of Scott Allen to be U.S. Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Senate is not in session on Wednesday in observance of Veterans Day.

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 54^th 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 15,000^th 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).

October 23, 2015

The House passed HR 3493, the Securing Our Cities Act; HR 3350, the Know the CBRN Terrorism Threats to Transportation Act; HR 692, the Default Prevention Act; HR 10, the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Reauthorization Act; and HR 1937, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015. The House also passed its budget reconciliation measure, HR 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act. The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act (S. 2146) by a vote of 54 to 45. The Senate then took up S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act and the motion to invoke cloture was agreed to by a roll call vote of 83 to 14. The Senate will resume consideration of the measure when it meets next week. The Senate adopted the following measures by unanimous consent: S 799, a bill to combat the rise of prenatal opioid abuse and neonatal abstinence syndrome; S 1403, the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act; HR 208, a bill to require the Small Business Administration to establish a program to make loans to certain businesses, homeowners, and renters affected by Superstorm Sandy; and HR 774, the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act.

House Leadership Elections

Speaker

After a weekend of “will he or won’t he” run, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) returned to Congress this week and said that he would seek the speakership if certain conditions were met. The conditions included the support from the Freedom Caucus, the Republican Study Committee, and the Tuesday Group, as well as changes to the motion to vacate the chair; no speaker travel on weekends for fundraising; committees, not leadership, lead the policy process; and whatever new rules the conference adopts are applied to all. Ryan did say that he would respect the “Hastert Rule,” which requires a majority of the majority to support legislation in order for it to move to the floor.

It wasn’t clear at first if the House Freedom Caucus would support Ryan. The caucus prefers to vote as a bloc, but under the group’s rules, that can only happen if 80% of its members agree on a leadership candidate. The caucus met Wednesday night and fell a few votes short of the 80%. However, since the Freedom Caucus’ leaders said that a “super majority” would support Ryan’s candidacy, Ryan decided to continue his bid. The Tuesday Group unanimously supported Ryan for Speaker, and the Republican Study Committee voted overwhelmingly to endorse Ryan. Ryan needs 218 GOP votes on the House floor. With only a few holdouts in the House Freedom Caucus, Ryan appears to have the 218 and more.

The GOP conference will meet next Wednesday to vote internally, and the full House will vote on Thursday Oct. 29.

Ways and Means Committee Chair

If Rep. Ryan wins the speakership, he will have to vacate his chairmanship on the Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) is interested in the position, is third in seniority on the committee, chairs the Health subcommittee and is seen as the frontrunner. Brady was the point person on the Medicare “doc fix” issue earlier this year and is a cosponsor of the “Fair Tax” proposal that would eliminate the IRS and replace most federal taxes with a national sales tax. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) may also be mounting campaigns for Ways and Means. Tiberi chairs the Trade subcommittee and Nunes is chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report

On Thursday, President Obama officially vetoed the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This was just the fifth veto of Obama’s presidency. The President vetoed the bill (HR 1735) over the use of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account for funding an additional $38B as well as provisions preventing the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. Congressional Republicans are waging an all-out public relations campaign in response to the veto seeking to portray the President is indifferent to the needs of service members. House Republicans have scheduled a Nov. 5 vote to override the veto and are whipping votes now to try to get to the required 2/3 majority. The House originally passed the measure by a vote of 270 to 156 (10 Republicans and 146 Democrats voted against the measure). 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 there aren’t the votes for an override, the bill will have to be part of any potential overall budget agreement for the current fiscal year.

Cybersecurity

The Senate took up S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) this week and the motion to invoke cloture was agreed to by a roll call vote of 83 to 14. One possibility that could sidetrack the bill would be if Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) amendment is adopted. Cotton’s amendment would allow companies to share threat data with the FBI or Secret Service while still getting the same liability protections afforded under CISA that they would by sharing the threat data with the Department of Homeland Security. The Senate will resume consideration of the bill next week and is expected to complete its work on the bill on Tuesday.

FY16 Appropriations

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) has said that his committee needs about a month to write an omnibus bill after any deal is reached on lifting the budget sequestration caps. With that in mind, in order to pass an omnibus before the current continuing resolution (CR) expires on Dec. 11, Rogers would need his new budget caps by Nov. 11.

This week 101 House Republicans wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in which they said that they would block any FY16 defense appropriation bill that does not raise the defense spending level to the level ($561B) requested by the President and the Pentagon. The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee. The House and Senate FY16 defense appropriations bills do fund defense at the level they are demanding, but the bills rely on the OCO account to provide an additional $38B so that the bills don’t violate the Budget Control Act spending caps.

The members who signed the letter also wrote that they would oppose a full-year CR. And speaking of a CR, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz today told reporters that the President would not sign another short-term CR and would oppose any CR that does not fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Debt Ceiling

The House took up a measure (HR 692, the Default Prevention Act) that would prioritize payments from the U.S. Treasury in the event that the debt ceiling is breached, but they did not consider any legislation to raise the debt limit this week. And it’s not clear yet if they can avoid a default. If all 188 Democrats in the House vote in favor of a clean debt ceiling increase, they still need 30 Republicans to join them. The last time the House passed a debt limit bill only 28 Republicans voted for it, and nine of those “yes” votes have left the House replaced by more conservative members. The House may now look to the Senate to take up an increase first.

The Republican Study Committee had proposed a debt ceiling increase that was tied to new limits on executive branch power, procedural overhauls, and spending reductions. The Terms of Credit Act did not get a whip count of the needed 218 votes, so floor action was postponed.

Terms of Credit Act:

http://rsc.flores.house.gov/files/uploads/The%20Terms%20of%20Credit%20Act_Short%20Outline_10.20.2015_Final.pdf

The current debt limit is $18.1 trillion. Any increase passed by Congress would likely be another debt limit suspension (probably through 2017). Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-V) said that the debt limit and a budget deal would be handled separately, and that the budget deal would come after a debt limit bill is passed. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew estimates that the U.S. will hit its borrowing limit on Nov. 3 after all extraordinary measures are exhausted. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the extraordinary measures would be exhausted “sometime in the first half of November.” If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to fully pay its obligations. This would lead to delays of payments for government activities, a default on the government’s debt obligations, or both.

In the meantime, the U.S. Treasury on Thursday postponed the 2-year note auction that was scheduled for Tuesday due to debt ceiling constraints. They may also have to postpone the Nov. 2 auction of the 2-year notes. Two other auctions scheduled for next week will continue as scheduled.

Political Updates

The Democratic field for Presidential candidates narrowed greatly this week. With President Obama and Dr. Jill Biden by his side, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for President. This morning, former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee dropped out of the race. And earlier this week, former Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) withdrew from the Democratic presidential primary, but indicated that he may pursue the presidency as an Independent depending on “what voters have to say.”

President Obama nominated Lisa Fairfax, a George Washington University law professor, and Hester Peirce, a former Senate Banking Committee aide, to fill the two open seats on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Thad Odderstol, Director of Industry Engagement and Resilience at DHS’ Office of Cybersecurity and Communications stepped down last Friday and the agency has not announced you who would replace him.

At the Department of Defense the following appointments were made this week: Karen Hughto to be Deputy General Counsel; Stephen Hedger to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs; and Adrienne Schweer to be Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Protocol. Two reassignments were also made this week – Andrew Haeuptle was assigned as the Director of the Management, Policy and Analysis Directorate in the Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer and Dr. Zachary Mears was assigned as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Deputy Chief Technology Officer Ryan Panchadsaram is stepping down from his position and returning to San Francisco to be with this family. Panchadsaram helped form the U.S. Digital Services and also helped implement President Obama’s open data executive order, which requires the government to make its data freely available, and helped launch a revamped Data.gov.

Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) named announced today that Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) will chair the special panel created to investigate Planned Parenthood about the sale of fetal tissue. The other Republican members named to the panel are: Joe Pitts (R-PA), Diane Black (R-TN), Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Andy Harris (R-MD), Vicki Hartzler (R-MO), and Mia Love (R-UT). The panel will reside in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Next Week

The House will take up a short-term extension of the highway bill, HR 1090, the Retail Investor Protection Act, and legislation relating to the nation’s debt limit. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster was also hopeful that the House would take up HR 3763, the committee’s six-year $330 billion surface transportation authorization bill. The Senate will resume consideration of S 754, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Senate will try to wrap its work on this bill by Tuesday.

October 16, 2015 

The House and Senate were in recess this week.

House Leadership Elections and Conference Rules

While Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) returned to his district this week to discuss with his family whether or not to run for House Speaker, several other potential candidates emerged. Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) asked his Republican colleagues for their feedback on his potential pursuit of the position if Ryan opted to not run. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) are also said to be considering a bid to replace current House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) if Ryan says no. Other declared candidates include Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL). Ryan, who has already declined the job twice since Boehner’s retirement announcement, may prefer to remain as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee where he can continue to pursue his personal dedication to fiscal issues.

And Republican leaders are formally asking GOP conference members if they should change the rules governing the House GOP conference. Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus had requested an overhaul of the rules that would give rank-and-file members more say in selecting committee chairmen and seats on key committees. Critics of the Freedom Caucus may submit their own rule changes including one that would require GOP members to vote for the conference’s speaker candidate on the House floor. The conference will meet next Wednesday and members were told to submit their proposals by Tuesday night.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report

All indications are that President Obama will veto the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act when it reaches his desk. While the House and Senate passed the conference report last week, the veto showdown will have to wait until next week. The bill still has to be enrolled before it can be sent to the President, and that won’t happen until after Congress returns from recess. The enrollment process includes printing the bill on parchment paper.

Debt Ceiling

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report this week, “Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit,” in which they estimate that the U.S. Treasury Department will run out of cash “sometime in the first half of November” and that “earlier or later dates are possible, depending on the amount and timing of cash flows in the next several weeks.” This new date is earlier than the date CBO last projected at the end of August. The projected date in that analysis was mid-November-early December. And this week Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that the U.S. would hit its borrowing limit on Nov. 3, two days earlier than he originally forecasted.

The debt limit (debt ceiling) is the maximum amount of debt that Treasury can issue. The amount is set by law and has been increased over the years in order to finance the government’s operations. In March of this year, the debt ceiling was reached, and the Secretary of the Treasury announced a “debt issuance suspension period.” During such a period, existing statutes allow the Treasury to take a number of “extraordinary measures” to borrow additional funds without breaching the debt ceiling.

CBO now estimates that these “extraordinary measures” will be exhausted by the first half of November. CBO revised its estimate of the timing primarily because the Treasury’s cash balance at the beginning of October was smaller than expected, the result of a larger-than-expected deficit and other variations in cash flows.

If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to fully pay its obligations. This would lead to delays of payments for government activities, a default on the government’s debt obligations, or both.

House Speaker John Boehner wants Congress to vote to lift the debt ceiling before he leaves office. Boehner is reportedly in talks with the Senate and the White House on a budget deal that will include a debt limit increase. If they can’t come to agreement on a budget deal, Boehner intends to move a standalone bill on the debt limit. But this move could be complicated by the standard he set in 2011 that any time Congress raises the debt ceiling, the increase should be accompanied by corresponding spending reductions.

CBO Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit Report:

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/50888-FederalDebtLimit.pdf

Highway Reauthorization Bill Released in House

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released its six-year $325B highway reauthorization bill today ahead of an expected markup on Oct. 22. The current authorization expires at the end of the month (Oct. 29). The Senate passed a five-year bill before the August recess that included an EXIM Bank reauthorization provision.

The House bill does not include any new ways to pay for programs, but outlines some policy changes from the last reauthorization (MAP-21). The policy changes include consolidating and eliminating offices within the Department of Transportation, streamlining environmental review and permitting processes; and establishing a Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-CA) sent a letter to House leaders this week saying she was “heartened” by the news of the markup and urged the committee to pass the bill without delay.

Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015:

http://transportation.house.gov/uploadedfiles/strra.pdf

Political Updates

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert reached a plea deal on Thursday in a criminal case involving charges that he paid $3.5M to an unnamed associate in an attempt to cover up a wrongdoing from several years ago when he was a high school gym teacher in Illinois. Hastert entered a guilty plea that will likely include more than a year in prison for violating a federal banking law. The details of his sentence will be available when Hastert formally enters his guilty plea on Oct. 28.

Next Week

The House will take up HR 10, the SOAR Reauthorization Act; HR 692, the Default Prevention Act; and HR 1937, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015. The Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to a “sanctuary cities” bill (S 2146) when they return next week. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also pushing for their cybersecurity legislation (S 754) to be considered next week.

October 9, 2015 

The House passed HR3192, the Homebuyers Assistance House; HR 538, the Native American Energy Act; and HR 702, a bill to adapt to changing crude oil market conditions. The Senate passed the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act and passed by unanimous consent HR 34, the Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act; HR 3116, the Quarterly Financial Report Reauthorization Act; S 32, the Transnational Drug Trafficking Act; HR 623, the DHS Social Media Improvement Act of 2015; and S 2162, a bill establishing a 10-year term for the service of the Librarian of Congress. The Senate also confirmed Mario Cordero to be a Federal Maritime Commissioner, Sarah Mendelson to be Representative of the United States of America on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and to be an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Stephen Hedger to be the Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the Department of Defense, and W. Thomas Reeder, Jr. to be Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

House Leadership Elections

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) shocked DC with his announcement Thursday morning that he was no longer seeking the speakership. This prompted House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to postpone the elections with no new vote date set. While Rep. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) had also declared their candidacies for Speaker, neither has been taken seriously as a frontrunner even though Webster won the endorsement of the House Freedom Caucus. McCarthy’s decision raises several questions for which there are not a lot of answers right now.

Why did McCarthy step aside?

McCarthy said in an interview that he felt that the party needed a Speaker that could get all 247 votes, not just the 218 needed to win. And it was unclear if he could even get the 218. The Freedom Caucus had made impossible demands of McCarthy such as publicly opposing efforts by establishment groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce to run radio and TV ads criticizing conservatives. There was also the gaffe McCarthy made when speaking about the Benghazi Committee that prompted Chaffetz to enter the race.

What happens next?

It isn’t clear yet if Speaker Boehner will remain in his leadership position until a new permanent Speaker is elected or if the Republican Conference will elect an Interim Speaker. Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) who are both retiring at the end of 2016, are two names being raised as potential interim speakers. And Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) has expressed an interest in being interim speaker.

Who will be the next Speaker?

The list of contenders remains fluid. While Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) immediately put out a statement saying he wasn’t interested in the position after McCarthy’s surprise announcement, a number of Republicans (including Romney, Boehner, McMorris-Rodgers, and McCarthy) are lobbying Ryan to run. Other names being mentioned are Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Gowdy has said he is backing Ryan, and Jordan has said he doesn’t want the position. And Chaffetz and Webster are still continuing their bids.

Several senior House members and Chairmen are saying they have no interest in replacing Boehner such as House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) who is publicly backing Ryan. And House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said he is not interested in the position, confirming in a tweet “I’d rather be a vegetarian.”

What impact does this have on budget and debt ceiling negotiations?

Does McCarthy’s withdrawal improve or hurt the chances of a budget deal that would raise the caps for defense and non-defense spending for FY16 and FY17 and raise the debt ceiling? If Speaker Boehner stays on in his position, it could give him more time to negotiate a deal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Obama. Others think the “chaos” hurts these efforts. But if Boehner leaves before a deal is passed, a full-year continuing resolution becomes the more likely outcome.

What happens to McCarthy?

McCarthy said that he intends to stay in Congress and keep his current job as Majority Leader. But many are speculating that he will either resign or retire.

FY16 Appropriations

The government is currently funded through December 11 under a continuing resolution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) brought up the FY16 Energy and Water appropriations bill for a cloture vote this week. The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 49 to 47. Three Republicans voted with the Democrats to oppose moving forward on the bill, while Sen. Manchin (D-WV) was the only Democrat to vote yes.

The Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations committee, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) called on budget negotiators to provide them with a revised topline spending limit (302(a) allocation) by November 1 so that appropriators can wrap up an omnibus spending bill before the December 11 deadline. On the House side, the Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY) said that her drop-dead date for a new 302(a) is November 11.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act

The Senate passed the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week by a vote of 70 to 27. The House passed the measure by a vote of 270 to 156 last week, short of the 2/3 majority needed to override President Obama’s threatened veto. The President and Democrats objected to the authorization of $38B in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding included in the bill that they claim is being used to skirt the budget caps for defense spending.

If the President decides to veto the NDAA conference report, Congress can try to override the veto. There are two types of vetoes – a regular veto and a pocket veto. In this case the President would have to employ a regular veto as a pocket veto requires Congress to adjourn. For a regular veto, the President would return the unsigned legislation to the House within a 10-day period with a message of disapproval or a “veto message.” If the NDAA is vetoed, it will first go to the House since it is a House-originated measure. 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 HASC). The Senate usually considers the question of overriding a veto under the terms of a unanimous consent agreement.

Defense Acquisition Report

Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall released the annual “Performance of the Defense Acquisition System” report and spoke about it at conference this week. The third annual report found that the Pentagon’s system for buying weapons, vehicles, and services has improved, and the cost growth on major programs is generally “at or better than historical levels.” But there were some outliers that remain a problem, including the Army’s Paladin howitzer and MQ-1 Grey Eagle drone; the Navy’s Littoral Combat ship, upgrades to its H-1 helicopter, and its DDG-1000 destroyer program; and the Air Force’s Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and a pair of its major satellite programs, the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite. The new data also confirmed that first-tier subcontract margins are generally higher than those on prime contracts, which the department wants to further analyze from a policy perspective. And the report presents evidence that DOD has been pursuing less complex systems with about the same or less risk since 2009 raising concerns that the department is not pursuing state-of-the-art enough endangering the US’ military technical superiority. Finally, the report shows a correlation between high acquisition cost growth for programs and tight budgetary environments, which Kendall partly attributed to unrealistic bids.

A copy of the report can be found at:

http://www.acq.osd.mil/fo/docs/Performance-of-Defense-Acquisition-System-2015.pdf

Political Updates

The President nominated Steven Haro to be Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Commerce, John Kotek to be Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy, Carolyn Lerner to be Special Counsel in the Office of Special Counsel, Matthew Matthews to be the United States Senior Official for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum at the State Department, Michael Missal to be Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Amos Hochstein to be Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources at the Department of State, and Raymond Dolan to be a member of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

Michael Amato, communications director for the minority on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), is leaving the committee on Oct. 15 to become the communications director for the Office of Personnel and Management. Amato has worked for the top Democrat on the Armed Services panel, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), for more than seven years in both his personal office and on the committee.

Next Week

The House and Senate are in recess next week. The Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to a “sanctuary cities” bill (S 2146) when they return the following week. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also pushing for their cybersecurity legislation (S 754) to be considered after the recess.

October 2, 2015

Both the House and Senate passed a continuing resolution funding the government through December 11 averting a potential shutdown of the federal government. The House also passed the conference report for the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1735), the Cross-Border Rail Security Act of 2015 (HR 2786), the Border Jobs for Veterans Act of 2015 (HR 2835), the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act (HR 3457), the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act (HR 3495), and the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act (S 2082). The Senate passed HR 3614, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015 and HR 1624, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act. The Senate also passed by unanimous consent a bill to reauthorize the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (S 2078), a bill reducing an increase in the minimum wage for American Samoa (HR 2617), the Border Jobs for Veterans Act (HR 2835), and a bill to extend and expand the Medicaid emergency psychiatric demonstration project (S 599).

House Leadership Elections

Next Thursday (Oct. 8), House Republicans will elect their new leadership. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) may challenge the customary process by recommending candidates vacate their current leadership posts if they run for another office, and he may have the support of some younger members of Congress. Current GOP rules only state that vacancies trigger elections.

Speaker

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced this week that he was seeking the speaker’s gavel. McCarthy has two challengers for the leadership position. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), whose district may be eliminated by the 2016 election, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chaffetz hasn’t officially declared, but is rumored to be preparing to also launch a campaign for House speaker. This comes after Chaffetz called on McCarthy to apologize for his remarks this week that the Benghazi Committee investigation has damaged Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. McCarthy remains the overwhelming favorite to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The new speaker will be elected through a floor vote in which a simple majority of 218 votes will be required to approve the new leader. That leaves McCarthy room to lose the support of only 29 Republican members. The Freedom Caucus prefers to vote as a bloc, but under the group’s rules, that can happen only if 80% of members agree on a leadership candidate. If the Freedom Caucus throws its weight behind Webster’s candidacy for speaker, McCarthy would have huge problems winning the gavel and it could throw the GOP Conference into turmoil. But if McCarthy can secure the backing of 4/5 of the group, the speakership would be his to lose. If neither candidate reaches that 80% threshold, every member of the conservative group becomes a free agent — and McCarthy will try to pick off individual lawmakers. He would be expected to corral a majority of the group in that scenario.

Majority Leader

Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Tom Price (R-GA) are running for Majority Leader if McCarthy is elected Speaker. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) took herself out of the running this week. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) have both endorsed Price for Majority Leader. Price fought against raising defense spending in the Republican budget earlier this year. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has thrown her support behind Scalise.

Majority Whip

Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Dennis Ross (R-FL) are all likely candidates for Majority Whip if Rep. Scalise is elected Majority Leader or forced to vacate the position while running for Majority Leader.

FY16 Appropriations/Continuing Resolution (CR)

The House and Senate avoided a federal government shutdown by passing a FY16 continuing resolution (CR) this week. The House passed the CR by a vote of 277 to 151 after the Senate had cleared it by a vote of 78 to 20.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) defied House conservatives who wanted to use the CR to defund Planned Parenthood. All Democrats in the House voted for the CR, but they were joined by only 91 House Republicans. All nay votes in the Senate were from Republican members, including Republican Presidential candidates Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubia (R-FL) did not vote. The vote counts indicate the difficulties that lie ahead with passing a long-term omnibus spending measure by the December 11 deadline. President Obama has vowed to veto an omnibus that doesn’t replace sequestration.

The $1.017T in annualized spending CR funds the government through December 11 and includes $74.8B in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. In order to stay within the total spending limits set by the Budget Control Act, the 2016 CR contains an across-the-board reduction of 0.2108 percent. In the Senate Budget Committee’s latest “Budget Bulletin,” the committee states that while the CR stays under the BCA spending cap, nondefense spending exceeds its cap and defense spending falls below its cap. So while for the duration of the CR, the nondefense overage will not result in sequestration, an across-the-board reduction would occur if the CR were extended past the end of this session of Congress.

After passing the CR, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the $77.6B FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. The vote failed 50 to 44 (60 is needed for cloture). Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the motion to invoke cloture on the spending measure.

Major Legislative Issues for Remainder of 2015

What impact will the changes in leadership have on the outstanding legislative issues for 2015, including the prospects for a budget deal to raise the Budget Control Act spending caps as well as the debt ceiling? House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) retirement means that October could either be very tumultuous or very productive. The Speaker, no longer handcuffed by the conservatives in his party, could “clear the decks” for his successor before retiring. He said that he doesn’t intend to “sit around and do nothing for the next 30 days.”

FY16 Appropriations Bills/Omnibus

Boehner and McConnell have begun talks over a budget deal and will spend the next several weeks debating the stringent, across-the-board spending caps imposed in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Failure to reach agreement on lifting these caps will have an impact on the FY16 appropriations negotiations and could mean a federal government shutdown after December 11. The best prospects for an agreement and passage of an omnibus spending bill are with the current Speaker, as any long-term budget deal will be much more difficult for the new leadership team to bargain. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said House Democrats want to raise the spending caps by $74B, split evenly between defense and nondefense spending.

Debt Ceiling

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to Congress this week in which he said that the US will hit its borrowing limit by November 5. This deadline is sooner than originally estimated as “Tax receipts were lower than we previously projected, and the trust fund investments were higher than projected- resulting in a net decrease of resources available to the United States government.” This new deadline gives Congress just a month to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default. The debt limit increase could be tied to budget negotiations or a highway reauthorization measure. Speaker Boehner will likely have to negotiate this issue before he retires. He will face opposition from his own party for a clean debt limit hike, so he may have to rely on some Democrat votes by crafting a debt ceiling increase acceptable to both parties.

EXIM Bank

The Export-Import Bank charter expired on June 30. House Republicans are looking to revive the bank by forcing a House vote. They have secured enough Republican support to bring an extension of the agency’s charter to the House floor later this month. More than 30 Republicans have signed on to a discharge petition, which would force a vote on the reauthorization. A number of Democrats are expected to sign the petition.

Surface Transportation Reauthorization

The current highway bill authorization expires on October 29. The Senate passed a long-term (5 year) reauthorization before the August recess that included an EXIM Bank reauthorization provision. The House is working on a 6-year reauthorization that they hope to get out of committee in early October, but those plans may be falling apart as House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) told House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) not to count on international tax revenue for their offset. Ryan and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) remain at odds on the appropriate level of highway spending.

Tax Extenders

A number of tax provisions that expired at the end of 2014 will be unavailable to taxpayers when they file their 2015 taxes if they are not retroactively extended before the end of December. The tax provisions include credits for research and development, deductions for teachers’ out of pocket expenses, and credits that assist the US wind energy industry. In August, the Senate Finance Committee reported out S 1946, a bill that extends these tax provisions through 2016, and the House has passed several bills making some of the tax provisions permanent.

FY16 National Defense Authorization Act

The House and Senate Armed Services Committee reached agreement on a conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. The House passed the measure by a vote of 270 to 156, with mostly Democratic opposition to the bill. The vote was 20 ayes short of the votes needed to override President Obama’s threatened veto. The President and Democrats objected to the authorization of $38B in OCO funding that is being used to skirt the budget caps for defense spending. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) filed for cloture on the conference report this week, lining up a cloture vote for Tuesday. Sixty votes are needed to move forward and it is unclear at this time how Senate Democrats will vote on the procedural motion and final passage.

FY16 NDAA Conference Report:

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20150928/CRPT-114hrpt270.pdf

FY16 NDAA Conference Report Summary:

https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/114/PDF/114-CRHR1735-SxS.pdf

House Homeland Security Committee Markup

The House Homeland Security Committee met this week and marked up several bills including one (HR 3572) that would make structural changes to the Department of Homeland Security. The bill, the DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement Act of 2015, would amend the 2002 law that created DHS to update and streamline the department and encourage better policy, planning, management, and performance. The other bills marked up in the committee were:

• HR 3102, the Airport Access Control Security Improvement Act of 2015
• HR 3144, the Partners for Aviation Security Act
• HR 3350, the Know the CBRN Terrorism Threats to Transportation Act
• HR 3361, the DHS Insider Threat and Mitigation Act
• HR 3490, the Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act
• HR 3493, the Securing the Cities Act of 2015
• HR 3503, the DHS Support to Fusion Centers Act of 2015
• HR 3505, the DHS Clearance Management and Administration Act
• HR 3510, the DHS Cybersecurity Strategy Act of 2015
• HR 3572, the DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement Act
• HR 3578, the DHS Science and Technology Reform and Improvements Act of 2015
• HR 3583, the Promoting Resilience and Efficiency in Preparing for Attacks and Responding to Emergencies Act
• HR 3584, the TSA Reform and Improvement Act of 2015
• HR 3586, the Border and Maritime Coordination Improvement Act
• HR 3598, the Fusion Center Enhancement Act of 2015

Political Updates

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is stepping down in December and will rejoin his family in Chicago. John King, currently the Acting Deputy Secretary, will take over for Duncan in an acting capacity but will not be formally nominated for the position. After Duncan’s resignation, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be the only original member of the Obama Cabinet still serving.

CNN announced its debate criteria for its Democratic candidates debate in Las Vegas on October 13 at 9 pm. All five declared candidates – Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chaffee – have been invited to participate in the debate. Vice President Joe Biden could participate in the debate if he declares as the qualifications for participation are achieving an average of 1% in three polls recognized by CNN released between August 1 and October 10. But sources say Biden is unlikely to participate. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is moderating the debate, while CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN en Español Anchor Juan Carlos and CNN anchor Don Lemon will present questions to the candidates.

The next Republican candidates debate hosted by CNBC on October 28 will feature an undercard stage at 6 PM before the main event at 8 PM for those candidates polling at a 1% average in the five weeks before the debate. The main event will include candidates polling at a 3% or above average (and anything 2.5% and above will be rounded up to 3%). The polls being used for the averages are from NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and Bloomberg released between Sept. 17 and Oct. 21. The debate will be moderated by CNBC anchors John Harwood, Carl Quintanilla, and Becky Quick. The most recent polling averages from the recognized polls since Sept. 17 show that Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and former Gov. Jim Gilmore have not cleared a 1 percent average. According to the most recent polling averages, the main debate stage would feature Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul.

Ari Schwartz, Senior Director for Cybersecurity on the United States National Security Council Staff at the White House, stepped down from his position on Wednesday. Schwartz did not indicate where he might work next.

Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) announced Tuesday that he’s retiring at the end of 2016. Whitfield was considered a possible contender for replacing House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) who is term-limited by GOP rules. The other possible successors are Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR) and John Shimkus (R-IL).

Evelyn Farkas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, is leaving her post at the end of next month after five years with the Defense Department.

NASA named Renee Wynn as its new Chief Information Officer after serving for three months as the agency’s Deputy CIO. Wynn replaces Larry Sweet who served as CIO for about two years. Wynn joined NASA in July after leaving her post as the Acting Assistant Administrator in the Office of Environmental Information at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Charles Perkins has been assigned as the Principal Deputy Director for Emerging Capability and Prototyping in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Department of Defense. Dr. Perkins previously served as the Deputy Director of Special Projects.

Martha Dorris, GSA’s director of the Office of Strategic Programs within the Office of Integrated Technology Services, plans to leave government at the end of October.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Anthony Rock was appointed to the rank of lieutenant general and assigned as the Inspector General of the Air Force. Rock is currently serving as Chief in the Office of the Defense Representative-Pakistan at the US Central Command in Pakistan.

Next Week

The House will take up HR3192, the Homebuyers Assistance House; HR 538, the Native American Energy Act; and HR 702, a bill to adapt to changing crude oil market conditions. The Senate will vote on the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1735).