April 11, 2014 

In addition to passing an FY15 budget resolution this week, the House passed HR 1871, a bill to modify budget law to eliminate the baseline assumption that discretionary spending increases annually with inflation, and HR 1872, a bill that would account for the costs of market risks in federal credit programs. The Senate completed work on an unemployment aid package providing five months of emergency unemployment benefits retroactively to late December and through May 31. The Senate also unanimously approved a bill (the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act) to make more data about federal spending publicly available. The bill is expected to pass the House quickly and then head to the President for his signature. While the Senate failed to invoke cloture on S 2199, the Paycheck Fairness Act, the President signed two executive orders to prevent pay discrimination. One requires federal contractors to no longer forbid employees from discussing their pay, while the other directs the Department of Labor to collect aggregate pay information from federal contractors broken down by gender and race.

FY2015 Budget

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) FY15 budget resolution was considered on the House floor this week and passed by a vote of 219 to 205. While there was some concern that conservatives might not back the measure, in the end only 12 Republicans (and all Democrats) voted against it. The resolution proposes to cut $5.1 trillion in spending over 10 years and calls for dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the tax code. It also repeals most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), enacts welfare reforms, and rolls back energy and financial sector regulations. The budget resolution is nonbinding and more of a political statement from House Republicans as it will not be considered in the Senate. Senate Democrats opted to not consider a budget resolutions this year as they contend the Balanced Budget Act passed by Congress last December already sets the overall funding level for FY15.

Five alternative budget plans were offered, considered, and, ultimately, defeated. The alternatives included a Democratic version by Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), President Obama’s FY15 proposal as offered by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), and alternative budgets from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Republican Study Committee.

FY2015 Appropriations

The House Appropriations Committee met this week to mark up the FY15 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon/VA) and Legislative Branch spending bills. The Appropriations Committees normally consider their 302(b) allocations prior to marking up their 12 annual spending bills in committee. However, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said this week that his committee does not have the updated Congressional Budget Office baseline information used for scoring the bills that is necessary for providing accurate suballocations for the bills. Rogers anticipates receiving that updated information on April 17. In the meantime, the committee considered interim 302(b) allocations for these first two bills.

The committee approved by voice vote the $165 billion FY15 MilCon/VA appropriations bill, but first adopted a manager’s amendment offered by subcommittee Chairman John Culberson (R-TX) that would insert provisions and make technical changes to the draft committee report. The committee rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) that would strike a provision to prohibit military construction funds from being used to construct or alter facilities in the United States with the intent of housing detainees from the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The bill provides $6.6 billion for military construction (down $3.2 billion from the $9.8 billion enacted in FY14) and $158.2 billion for the VA (up $10.3 billion over FY14 levels). Both parties are hoping the funding levels provided in FY15 will help the VA in its efforts to reduce its backlog of pending claims. The bill also provides $234 million for related and independent agencies, such as cemetery expenses at Arlington National Cemetery.

The committee also approved the $3.3 billion FY15 Legislative Branch spending bill. The funding level is the same as the FY14 funding level, but $122.5 million less than what the President requested. If enacted, the Government Accountability Office (+$14.2M), the Government Printing Office (+$3.2M), and the Library of Congress (+$15.9M) would receive modest increases. The bill contains $1.2 billion to fund the operations of the House – the same as FY14, and continues restrictions on Representatives and Senators from receiving a pay increase in FY15. The Capitol Police would receive $347 million, about $9.5 million more than current spending, but still below their $356 million request.

Chairman Rogers reiterated his goal of completing committee consideration of all 12 annual appropriations bills before the end of June and passing all spending measures before the August recess. In the Senate, Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., is planning her first markups in May.

As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:

FY15 National Defense Authorization Act

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) began the FY15 defense authorization process this week by introducing a “by request bill,” HR 4435. This is the first step in the legislative process for the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes funding for military activities of the Department of Defense, military construction, and defense activities of the Department of Energy, and prescribes military personnel strengths. When the committee meets to mark up the bill later this month/next month, the content of HR 4435 will be struck and replaced with subcommittee and full committee proposals. The markup schedule for the committee is as follows:

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

10:30 AM—Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Markup (Room 2212)

12:00 PM—Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Markup (Room 2118)

1:30 PM—Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces Markup (Room 2212)

3:00 PM—Subcommittee on Military Personnel Markup (Room 2118)

Thursday, May 1, 2014

9:30 AM—Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces Markup (Room 2118)

10:30 AM—Subcommittee on Readiness Markup (Room 2212)

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

10:00 AM—Full Committee Markup (Room 2118)

Defense Unfunded Priorities Lists

Last week the Pentagon released their FY15 unfunded priorities lists totaling almost $34B. The lists are breakdowns from the Army ($10.603B), Navy ($10.0582B), Marines ($2.5483B), Air Force ($7.991B), Special Operations ($400M), and National Guard ($1.5493B) of their wish lists for additional funds to pay for things like maintenance, shore and afloat readiness, recapitalization, installation support, training and personnel costs, facility modernization, critical spares, and weapons systems modernization. Defense Secretary Hagel said that he was publishing the lists in compliance with orders from Congress, but made it clear that he would not lobby for this additional funding. Copies of the lists can be found at:

Army – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=162

Navy – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=163

Marine Corps – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=164

Air Force – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=165

Special Operations – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=166

National Guard – https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=167

Cybersecurity

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission issued a formal policy statement on Thursday saying they won’t file antitrust complaints against companies that share information with each other about cyberattacks on their computer systems. Companies were nervous that antitrust laws intended to prevent stifling competition and inflating prices could be violated when discussing information about cyberattacks. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) applauded the announcement but said that cybersecurity legislation is still needed. The policy statement can be found at: https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=168.

Homeland Security

Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), Chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security held a hearing this week with the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in advance of committee consideration of two bills introduced earlier this year that reauthorize CBP (HR 3846) and ICE (HR 4279). Both agencies have never received formal authorization from Congress. The intent of the bills is to give the agencies the proper authorities to carry out their missions. Both bills have bipartisan support, as well as support from the two agencies.

Political Updates

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigned this week after leading the agency through the creation and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  President Obama announced today his intent to nominate OMB director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace Sebelius. Sebelius leaves after the Administration announced 7.5 million people enrolled in “Obamacare,” but she was the face for the Administration while they experienced the technical problems with the implementation late last year. Burwell was confirmed as OMB director in a 96 to 0 vote last April. Her nomination to be HHS Secretary has received support from both sides of the aisle, and will be made easier by the Senate’s change to the filibuster rule that now only requires a simple majority vote instead of 60 votes.

Maria Contreras-Sweet was sworn in this week as administrator of the Small Business Administration. Contreras-Sweet was the executive chairwoman and founder of ProAmérica Bank, a commercial bank focusing on small to mid-sized businesses with a specialty in the Latino community.

The Senate Monday confirmed the nomination of Dr. Reggie Brothers to be DHS Undersecretary for Science and Technology (S&T) and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Frank Taylor to be DHS Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis. Brothers is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research at DoD where he led oversight of DoD’s cyber S&T portfolio. He was also the chair of the DoD S&T Executive Council, which has oversight of the DoD S&T portfolio. Taylor is the former Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security and deputy director for operations in the Directorate of Counterintelligence and Investigative Programs in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

The Senate also confirmed Wanda Felton for a second term as First Vice President and Vice Chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and Terrell McSweeny to be a Federal Trade Commissioner. McSweeny’s nomination returns the FTC to full-strength for the first time in a year and gives the Democrats a 3-2 edge. McSweeny was a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden. And finally, Neil Kornze was confirmed by the Senate as Director of the Bureau of Land Management. Kornze was a Senior Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) from 2003 to 2011.

Next Week

The House and Senate are in recess the next two weeks and will reconvene the week of April 28.

April 4, 2014

The House passed bills providing economic assistance to Ukraine and imposing sanctions against Russia, which were then signed into law by the President. The House also passed HR 2575, the Save American Workers Act, a bill redefining “full-time employee” from 30 hours to 40 hours a week in the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). And, later today, the House is expected to pass HR 1874, the Pro-Growth Budgeting Act of 2013, a bill requiring the Congressional Budget Office to use dynamic scoring for major legislation (except appropriations). The Senate passed and the President signed into law a year-long extension of the “doc fix,” a bill to prevent cuts to Medicare payment rates. The Senate also continued debate on a five-month extension to emergency unemployment compensation.

FY2015 Budget

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee introduced his FY15 budget resolution this week. The resolution proposes to cut $5.1 trillion in spending over 10 years and calls for dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the tax code. It also repeals most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), enacts welfare reforms, and rolls back energy and financial sector regulations.

The nonbinding budget resolution, marked up in committee this week, adheres to the $1.014 trillion discretionary budget cap for FY15 that was agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) passed by Congress last December (P.L. 113-67). While it proposes significant cuts in order to balance the budget within 10 years, defense spending is boosted by $273 billion over the level in the President’s proposed FY15 budget. Although it makes no recommendations for scaling back military pay and benefits, Ryan does say that serious consideration should be given to the recommendations due early next year from the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission.

During the markup, Democrats offered and requested votes on several amendments that they will use in the upcoming elections to demonstrate the parties’ differing priorities. The defeated amendments include immigration overhaul, raising the minimum wage, and extending unemployment insurance offset by reducing tax subsidies for oil companies and increasing the income tax on millionaires. Democrats also criticize the budget for the use of dynamic scoring, which they assert overstates the economic impact of the proposal.

The budget resolution will be considered on the House floor next week. Passage of the budget resolution in the House may be difficult, as Republicans will need 217 votes. Out of the 233 Republicans in the House, 62 voted against the BBA in December. Ryan’s FY14 budget resolution also passed by a slim margin last year. Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) has said that her committee will not write a budget since the BBA already set the FY15 discretionary spending limit.

FY2015 Appropriations

The House Appropriations Committee officially kicked off the FY15 appropriations process with two subcommittee markups this week – Military Construction/Veterans Affairs and Legislative Branch. These are considered the two least controversial of the 12 annual spending bills. The FY15 DHS appropriations bill may be up next on the docket. These markups were held prior to the committee releasing their 302(b) allocations. It is unclear when those allocations would be made, but they will need to be set before the more controversial spending bills are considered. Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said he aims to have all 12 bills through the full committee by July 4, and he would like to have all 12 pass the House before the August recess. Rogers also called for budget process reform that would move up the April 15 deadline for the House Budget Committee to set discretionary spending levels for appropriators in its annual budget resolution as it would give appropriators more time and a better chance of getting their bills done.

The FY15 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs (MilCon/VA) appropriations bill proposes $71.5 billion in discretionary spending, a decrease of $1.8 billion from FY14 with most of the cuts coming from the MilCon accounts. The bill includes $158.2 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the VA ($10.3 billion over FY14, but $5.7 billion less than the President’s budget request) and $6.6 billion for military construction (compared to $9.8 billion in FY14). Similar to previous years, the bill prohibits any funds from being used to construct facilities in the US for housing Guantánamo Bay detainees. The bill provides $344 million for modernization of the VA’s electronic health record system, but as in the previous year’s spending measure, it would free up only 25 percent of those funds until the VA provides cost estimates for the program as well as status updates on efforts to achieve full interoperability with the Defense Department’s own records. The bill also provides $173 million for the paperless claims processing system and an increase of $20 million above the President’s request for digital scanning of health records, centralized mail, and overtime to end the backlog in disability compensation claims by 2015.

The FY15 Legislative Branch spending bill provides $3.3 billion, which is the same as the FY14 funding level but $122.5 million less than what the President requested. If enacted, the Government Accountability Office (+$14.2M), the Government Printing Office (+$3.2M), and the Library of Congress (+$15.9M) would receive modest increases. The bill contains $1.2 billion to fund the operations of the House – the same as FY14, and continues restrictions on Representatives and Senators from receiving a pay increase in FY15. The Capitol Police would receive $347 million, about $9.5 million more than current spending, but still below their $356 million request.

As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:

Cybersecurity

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it officially adopted the IT security standards in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) in lieu of the military specific DOD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP). DoD will move all IT systems used by its organizational entities to the NIST government-wide set of IT security accreditation standards. DOD released a memo (https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=160) instructing DoD program managers, security personnel, and components on how to implement the new policy.

This is the first time defense and civilian agencies have identical security standards. In addition to all DoD organizational entities, the RMF will apply to weapons, space systems, vehicles, aircraft, and medical devices. The transition timeline calls for ending DIACAP within six months and fully transitioning to RMF within 3 ½ years.

Homeland Security

The House Homeland Security committee Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies subcommittee marked up HR 4007, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) Program Authorization and Accountability Act of 2014. CFATS was originally authorized by Congress in 2007 with the mission of developing a set of vulnerability assessment standards for chemical plants and implementing a corresponding set of regulations to protect the highest risk facilities from intentional physical attacks. CFATS requires covered chemical facilities to prepare security vulnerability assessments and to develop and implement site security plans based on those assessments. Subcommittee chairman Patrick Meehan (R-PA) said that CFATS has struggled in its seven-year history, hence the need for a two year reauthorization bill that would make the site security plan approval process more efficient and the compliance process better coordinated. The bill enjoys bipartisan support as well as the support of the Administration. Meehan worked with Energy and Commerce Committee to resolve jurisdictional referral issues.

Tax Extenders

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the new chair of the Senate Finance Committee held a mark up this week on a package (EXPIRE Act) that would extend for two years popular business tax preferences such as the credit for research and exploration, individual breaks for mortgage interest and mortgage debt relief, credits for public transit and parking, and biofuel and renewable energy provisions. But only 45 of the 55 breaks that expired Dec. 31 made it into the bill. A description of the Chairman’s modification to the EXPIRE Act can be found at:

http://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Chairman’s%20Modification%20EXPIRE%20Act.pdf

At the markup, Wyden said that this would be the last tax extenders bill the committee takes up as long as he is chairman. “That’s why the bill is called the EXPIRE Act. It is meant to expire.” The committee in a bipartisan voice vote approved the bill. Wyden plans on holding hearings starting next week that focus on reforming the tax code.

Political Updates

House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) announced this week that he would not run for reelection in November. Camp was first elected in 1990. Because of Republican leadership term limits, he is in his last year as chair of the powerful committee whose jurisdiction includes the tax code, Social Security, Medicare, and trade policy. Camp introduced a long-awaited tax-reform package earlier this year that was not embraced by GOP leadership. Camp is the fourth House committee chair to announce his retirement this year. Four Senate committee chairs have also announced their retirements this year. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chair of the House Budget Committee, and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) have both indicated an interest in succeeding Camp as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Camp’s retirement opens up a potentially competitive district as President Obama narrowly carried the district in 2008.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), an Iraq Veteran, was named to the House Armed Services Committee filling the seat left open by the resignation of Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ). Gabbard, a captain in the Hawaii Army National Guard, said that she would continue to work on bipartisan efforts to reform the military justice system to end the epidemic of military sexual assault.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 this week that caps on the total amount of money an individual can give to political campaigns and PACs in an election cycle are unconstitutional violating the First Amendment. Before the ruling, a single donor could contribute up to $5,200 to every House and Senate candidate up to a limit of $48,600. Now, if a single donor gives $5,200 to every House and Senate candidate of one party in a 468-race election cycle, the total would be $2,433,600. Contributions to party committees are capped as well. Before they were limited to $74,600 total. Now, a single donor can give $32,400 to each of the three federal party committees each year and $10,000 to each of the party’s 50 state committees for up to $1,194,400 in donations in a two-year election cycle. And finally, before contributions to Political Action Committees (PACs) were limited to a total of $74,600 in increments of up to $5,000. Post ruling, a single donor can give up to $5,000 to each PAC aligned with his or her political interest. If a donor spent $5,000 on each of the 2757 PACs in the 2012 election cycle, that would equal $13.7 million.

The Senate confirmed Christopher Lu to be Deputy Secretary of Labor. Lu has served as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary for President Obama, and as co-chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Lu was a classmate of President Obama’s at Harvard Law School and worked for Obama when he was in the Senate.

Next Week

The House will vote on their FY15 budget resolution as well as consider two budget process reform bills – one (HR 1871) would scrap the baseline budget assumption that discretionary spending grows each year with inflation and the other (HR 1872) would account for the costs of market risks in federal credit programs. The Senate will vote on final passage of a five-month extension to emergency unemployment compensation and may begin consideration of S 2198, the Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014 and S 2199, the Paycheck Fairness Act.

March 28, 2014 

The House and Senate passed different Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions bills, which leaders will have to reconcile before sending them to the President. Both authorize aid to Ukraine and sanction Russia for its takeover of the Crimean peninsula, but the Senate bill contains $100 million for security assistance to central and eastern Europe while the House bill authorizes U.S. international broadcasting to Ukraine and the surrounding region. The House also passed a one-year extension of the “doc fix” and a bill creating new hurdles to presidential designations of national monuments. The Obama administration announced this week that it will extend the March 31 deadline for signing up for health care for people who have begun the process before the deadline but who encounter problems or who have complicated family situations. 

FY2015 Budget

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will hold a mark up next week in his committee on an FY15 budget resolution. Ryan’s budget will likely adhere to the $1.014 trillion level agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) signed into law last December, and may also seek to eliminate the projected deficit by the end of the decade. Republicans have ruled out new tax revenue, so those savings would have to come from spending cuts – either reducing discretionary spending after FY15 or making deeper or faster reductions in entitlement and assistance programs such as Medicare and food stamps. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that the budget resolution would be considered on the House floor the week of April 7. Passage of the budget resolution in the House may be difficult, as Republicans will need 217 votes. Out of the 233 Republicans in the House, 62 voted against the BBA in December. Ryan’s FY14 budget resolution also passed by a slim margin last year. Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) has said that her committee will not write a budget since the BBA already set the FY15 discretionary spending limit.

FY2015 Appropriations

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said that his committee would wrap up their hearings on the FY15 budget and begin mark ups in late April. The Senate is expected to follow a few weeks later with their first committee markup by May 22. The MilCon VA bill could be the first bill the Senate considers in full committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has set aside four weeks (two in June, two in July) of floor time this summer for the spending bills. While there has been a push to get the 12 spending bills done before the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30), Republicans who are thinking they may make gains in the Senate in the November elections and Democrats who are up for re-election and want to avoid tough votes may want to put off consideration of the bills until after the election. This is especially true for bills that are typically targets of contentious policy riders or are subjects of disagreement between the parties over the funding levels, such as the Financial Services, Interior-Environment, and Labor-HHS-Education spending bills.

As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:

Cybersecurity

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing this week on Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships to Reduce Cyber Risks to Our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure. At the hearing, committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) said that the Administration’s recently released NIST cybersecurity framework is a blueprint or “living document” that will be continually updated; and commended the efforts of those trying to use the framework. However, he said that much more needs to be done and that he continues to believe that bipartisan legislation is the best long-term solution. Carper has been in discussions with Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK) and DHS in an attempt to produce legislation that would do the following:

1. Modernize the way we protect our federal networks from cyber threats. (Federal Information System Management Act (FISMA))
2. Clarify and strengthen the public private partnerships for the homeland security industry to have regarding cybersecurity.
3. Make information sharing easier so that companies can share best practices and threat information with each other and with the federal government.
4. Continue to develop the next generation of cyber professionals.

The primary reason Congress has yet to enact comprehensive cybersecurity legislation is differences over how much liability protection to grant businesses to get them to share cyber threat information with the government. Democrats prefer more targeted liability protection as they contend it would provide sufficient protection to enable businesses to share cyber threat information, and that businesses could potentially exploit broad liability protection for other matters. Proponents of broad liability protection, mainly Republicans, argue that businesses would not feel adequately protected under limited liability, and that their legal counsel would caution them that they could still be subject to legal action.

At the hearing, Sen. McCain (R-AZ) expressed his concerns that when the Senate is considering cybersecurity legislation they will bump up against the same issues they have been addressing in the past. McCain has been advocating for the creation of a select committee to overcome the jurisdictional issues in the Senate.

The SEC hosted a cybersecurity roundtable this week and discussed the cybersecurity landscape and cybersecurity issues faced by exchanges and other key market systems, broker-dealers, investment advisers, transfer agents, and public companies. They also discussed industry and public-private sector coordination efforts relating to assessing and responding to cybersecurity issues. At the roundtable, Commissioner Luis Aguilar recommended that the SEC create a new cybersecurity task force. Larry Zelvin, the head of DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, said companies are mostly fearful of disclosing cyber incidents and generally only push information to the government after a problem has persisted for days. The roundtable kicked off a five-week public comment period on the issues discussed at the event.

Homeland Security

The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency marked up H.R. 4228, the DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act this week. The bipartisan bill was introduced in the House on March 13 and has been endorsed by the Project Management Institute, the Security Industry Association, the Professional Services Council, and the Business Executives for National Security. The bill gives the agency’s undersecretary for management the power to approve, stop, change, or cancel any major acquisition program, and to review how such purchasing decisions are made. The bill creates an acquisition review board and requires quarterly reviews, multiyear acquisition strategies and congressional notification if the acquisition schedule is changed. Chairman Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said at the hearing, “Although DHS has taken steps to implement an acquisition policy with elements of commercial best practices and has put mechanisms in place to review programs, it has routinely failed to hold programs accountable. This must change.” The full committee is expected to consider and mark up the bill next month.

The panel adopted a few amendments including one that would require every major acquisition program to have a department-approved program baseline before continuing through the acquisitions process, allowing the CIO to provide recommendations to the acquisition review board. They also adopted two amendments offered by Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX). One would require that each program analyze its expected security benefit and how the program or system would be measured. O’Rourke’s second amendment would require program managers to have a life cycle cost estimate and a master schedule for the program’s implementation.

Political Updates

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) announced this morning that he is not seeking re-election to Congress, ending a 14-year career in Washington. Rogers is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Post retirement, Rogers will join Cumulus, a talk radio company. While Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) is next in line on the committee in seniority, he is considered the frontrunner to take over as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) next year. If Thornberry becomes HASC chairman, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) would be the frontrunner to take the Intelligence gavel. Miller is currently chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) have both expressed interest in the position. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the committee may also be leaving the committee at the end of the year because his term on the panel ends. Mr. Ruppersberger said whether he can stay past this term is up to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced several Department of Defense Senior Executive Service appointments and reassignments this week:

• Navy Rear Admiral Margaret “Peg” Klein, Senior Advisor for Military Professionalism, reporting directly to Sec. Hagel on issues related to military ethics, character, and leadership
  James P. Woolsey president, Defense Acquisition University, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics)
• Thomas M. Brady, director, Department of Defense Education Activity, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness
• Guy C. Beougher, executive director, operations and sustainment, Defense Logistics Agency
• Iram A. Ali, special assistant to the secretary of defense for White House Liaison

Next Week

In addition to a few bills on the suspension calendar and completing action on the Ukraine aid measure, the House will consider HR 2575, the Save the American Workers Act of 2014, a bill amending the Internal Revenue Code to redefine “full-time employee” from 30 hours to 40 hours a week, for purposes of the mandate requiring employers to provide health care coverage for their employees. The House will also consider HR 1874, the Pro-Growth Budgeting Act of 2013, a bill requiring the Congressional Budget Office to prepare a macroeconomic impact analysis for each major bill or resolution reported by any congressional committee (except appropriations). The Senate will complete work on the “doc fix” bill and continue debate on an extension to unemployment benefits.

March 14, 2014

The House passed a bill requiring the Attorney General to report to Congress when federal officers refrain from enforcing laws as well as a bill authorizing Congress to pursue civil action against the Executive Branch for not executing laws. The House also passed the Water Rights Protection Act, a resolution expressing support for the people of Ukraine, and a bill providing a long-term fix for Medicare’s physicians’ pay problem offset by a five-year delay of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. While the current “doc fix” expires on March 31, the Senate is unlikely to agree to the House bill because of the offset. A short-term extension might be needed. The Senate passed Sen. McCaskill’s (D-MO) sexual assault prevention in the military bill and a bill reauthorizing the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. The Senate also passed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act (HR 3370), which now goes to the President for his signature.

FY2015 Budget

The White House released part two of its $1.014 trillion FY15 budget request on Monday, which included the budget’s historical tables and analytical perspectives. Administration officials were on the Hill this week testifying and defending the President’s FY15 budget request.

OMB released two sequestration reports this week. While the Balanced Budget Act (PL 113-67) Congress passed in December averted sequestration in FY15 for discretionary funding, the sequester will still cut almost $18B from mandatory spending programs. These reports outline what those mandatory cuts will look like for each non-exempt budget account with direct spending. The Budget Control Act (PL 112-25) calls for sequestration of almost $18B in defense and non-defense direct spending in FY15. The reports can be found at:

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sequestration_order_report_march2014.pdf

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sequestration_preview_report_march2014.pdf

FY15 Appropriations

House and Senate Appropriations Chairs, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) have set aggressive timetables for marking up their FY15 appropriations bills this year. They would like to have them enacted into law by Oct. 1. Both will begin marking up their bills in subcommittee in May, with floor action for some bills starting in June. The order of consideration has not been decided.

Mikulski said this week that the Transportation HUD bill will likely be among the first ones her panel marks up. Defense may be considered later or last in the Senate as appropriators have not received the Administration’s FY15 Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget request. The budget included a $79.4 billion placeholder for OCO until DOD can better determine the scope of the enduring US presence in Afghanistan. During several hearings this week, Pentagon officials were asked when they could expect the FY15 OCO budget. DOD Comptroller Robert Hale responded that they wouldn’t be able to finalize the budget details until the bilateral security agreement is complete. This is not likely until after the elections on April 5. The Administration is expecting the next president of Afghanistan to sign the agreement. If there is no winner in April, a runoff would be held in August.

In the House, the Legislative Branch and MilCon/VA may be considered first, and Labor HHS Education likely would go last. While it has been reported that Rogers and Mikulski may pre-negotiate the subcommittee FY15 allocations, otherwise known as 302(b)s, that decision has not yet been made.

As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:

Cybersecurity

DHS named a new leadership team in the National Protection and Programs Directorate’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications:

• Andy Ozment

Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications

In addition to his recent role as Senior Director for Cybersecurity at the White House, Ozment has previously served in operational and policy roles at both DHS and the DoD.

• Air Force Brigadier General Gregory J. Touhill

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Operations and Programs

Touhill will focus on the development and implementation of operational programs designed to protect government networks and the critical systems that run power plants and utilities.

• Bobbie Stempfley

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Strategy and Emergency Communications

Stempfly will oversee emergency communications, developing and implementing strategy and policy efforts, as well as focusing on building on our partnerships with the public and private sectors, and the general public.

Homeland Security

The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency Chair Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) introduced legislation this week to reform DHS’ acquisition management. Reps. Ron Barber (D-AZ) and Steve Daines (R-MT) were cosponsors of the bill, H.R. 4228, the DHS Acquisition, Accountability and Efficiency Act. The bill requires greater oversight of DHS’ purchasing process and reforms DHS’ acquisition process by:

• Authorizing the Department’s Chief Acquisition Officer, the Undersecretary for Management, to approve, halt, modify or cancel major acquisition programs as needed;
• Requiring that every major acquisition program have an approved Acquisition Program Baseline (APB) document;
• Codifying the Acquisition Review Board and requiring the board to validate the documents – including the APB – and review the cost, schedule and performance objectives of major acquisitions;
• Requiring a Multiyear Acquisition Strategy be included in each Future Years Homeland Security Program;
• Authorizing the Chief Procurement Officer to serve as the main liaison to industry and to oversee a certification and training program for DHS’s acquisition workforce;
• Compelling DHS to submit to Congress major acquisition programs that fail to meet cost, schedule or performance metrics through quarterly status and accountability reports;
• Directing the Department to find ways to streamline the acquisition process and strategically address issues regarding bid protest without creating any new offices or programs; and
• Instructing DHS to eliminate unnecessary duplication.

A copy of the bill can be found at:

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/031314-HR4228.pdf

Political Updates

Republican David Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink in the special election for Florida’s 13th District. Jolly was sworn in on Thursday and succeeds Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), who passed away in October. The district is a true swing district that was won by President Obama in 2012. Jolly won the race 48.5% to 46.6% running as an opponent to Obamacare while Sink promised to work across the aisle bringing Democrats and Republicans together. This was an opportunity for both parties to test out their attack lines for the November election. Jolly will have to run for re-election in November.

Next Week

The House and Senate are in recess next week. The Senate will resume consideration of a bill to provide aide to Ukraine when they return the week of March 24. They will also take up an emergency unemployment compensation extension bill, “doc fix” legislation, and nominations.

March 7, 2014

The House passed legislation making Ukraine eligible for US loan guarantees, delaying the implementation of penalty fees for Obamacare, limiting environmental reviews for construction projects, prohibiting the FEMA Director from raising flood insurance rates, and limiting the EPA Administrator from establishing performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric utilities. The Senate completed work on several nominations, but rejected President Obama’s nominee to be assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The Senate also began consideration of two bills on sexual assault in the military and a bill to impose new educational, health and safety standards on child care facilities that receive federal funding.

FY2015 Budget

The White House released its  $1.014 trillion FY15 budget request (compared to $1.012T in FY14) on Tuesday and defended the request in several hearings on Capitol Hill this week. The information released this week by the Administration included proposals, summary tables, agency-level information and the detailed appendix. The budget’s historical tables and analytical perspectives will be released next week.

The budget adheres to the discretionary spending levels included in the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) (PL 113-67) Congress passed in December, but the administration also proposes an additional $56 billion in discretionary spending split evenly between defense and non-defense programs. This Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative would fund investments aimed at biomedical research, clean energy programs, preschool programs, infrastructure, national parks, veterans’ hospitals, modernization of defense weapons systems, restoration of cuts to readiness accounts, improvement of military facilities, etc. House and Senate Appropriations Chairs, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said that their committees would adhere to the top line funding level set in the BBA effectively nullifying any FY15 supplemental funding for the President’s initiative.

The President’s budget also included a four-year transportation bill, immigration overhaul, and a continued press for a corporate tax overhaul netting $650 billion in new revenues. And the FY15 plan recommends cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid by $402 billion over the next 10 years.

Defense

The FY15 defense budget request includes a request of $495.6 billion for base defense programs, which is 0.1% or $400 million less than the enacted FY14 appropriation and is consistent with the current budget caps. The Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative requests an additional $26 billion in FY15 defense spending to address significant readiness and modernization challenges. The budget also requests an additional $115 billion in FY16 to F19 to meet defense requirements. However, there is some confusion over what the additional $115 billion would go towards. DOD officials contradicted their statements that the additional funding would go towards bolstering manpower and meeting a statutory requirement for 11 aircraft carrier battle groups. Even with the additional $115 billion, DOD would not be able to meet this requirement.

The FY15 Defense budget includes $167.2B for military pay and benefits (including health care and retirement benefits); $77B for civilian pay and benefits; $154.3B for procurement, RDT&E, and new facilities construction; and $97.1B for other operating costs. The biggest savings in this year’s budget come from personnel, particularly the Army, which will be pared back to its smallest size in 74 years. The budget includes $199B for Operations and Maintenance ($4B over FY14), $91B for Procurement (down $94B from FY14); and a 1% increase in basic pay, a 1.5% increase in housing allowances, and a 3.4% increase in subsistence allowances.

As for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget, the department included a $79.4B placeholder as the administration is still determining its post-2014 presence in Afghanistan and doesn’t know whether any troops will remain there after this year. This is equal to last year’s request. DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said that the final OCO request will be smaller than the placeholder and will be used to pay for US troops in Afghanistan plus funding to reset equipment and support the Afghan National Security Forces.

DOD also released the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which lays out the military’s long-term strategy and anticipated threats on Tuesday. The QDR outlines DOD’s top strategic priorities: defending the homeland against all threats; building security globally by projecting U.S. influence and deterring aggression; and, remaining prepared to win decisively against any adversary should deterrence fail. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) immediately rejected the QDR saying that he will introduce legislation requiring the Pentagon to rewrite and resubmit the document.

Homeland Security

The President requested $38.2B in non-disaster discretionary funds for the Department of Homeland Security in FY15. This is 2.8% less than last year. With regards to cybersecurity the FY15 DHS budget includes a total of $1.25 billion, with $549M to support continued implementation of the Einstein managed security service; $66M for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (a $10M increase over FY14); and $680M for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (an increase of $29M over FY14). Cybersecurity funding requested is for resources to detect malicious traffic that targets civilian government networks; to support cyber and cyber-enabled investigations carried out by ICE and the Secret Service in areas such as cyber economic crime, identity theft, theft of export controlled data, and child exploitation; and to manage computer forensics programs. The DHS FY15 budget also includes funding for 4,000 additional Customs and Border Protection officers, $1 billion in assistance to state and local governments for firefighters and emergency-management personnel and $10 million to help immigrants on the path to citizenship.

FY15 Appropriations

As a reminder, the deadlines for members of Congress to submit their programmatic and language requests for the FY15 appropriations process are as follows:

Political Updates

DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson announced President Obama’s intent to nominate Vice Admiral Paul F. Zukunft as the 25th Commandant of the US Coast Guard. Zukunft is a 37-year veteran of the Coast Guard whose experience includes coordinating federal response to the Deepwater Horizon spill. He currently commands the US Coast Guard Pacific Area.

Primaries were held in Texas this week and Sen. John Cornyn won easily defeating conservative Rep. Steve Stockman. Cornyn faces no serious Democratic challenger in his bid for a third term. Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), who at 90 years old is the oldest sitting member of the House of Representatives in history, was forced into a run-off contest in the primary. Hall will face off with former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe, who is 48, in the fight to represent the northeast Texas 4th District. The primary run-off contest is set for May 27.

Next Week

In addition to considering a resolution expressing support for the people of Ukraine, the House will consider legislation requiring the Attorney General to report to Congress when federal officers refrain from enforcing laws, authorizing Congress to pursue civil action against the Executive Branch for not executing laws, placing prohibitions on the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture with respect to privately held water rights, and repealing the Medicare sustainable growth rate, otherwise known as the “Doc Fix” bill. The Senate will vote on Sen. McCaskill’s sexual assault in the military bill and resume consideration of the child care block grants legislation.

February 28, 2014

The House passed several bills under suspension this week including the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA); a bill to legalize cell phone unlocking; a private property rights act; a bill barring the IRS from asking questions regarding religious, political or social beliefs; a bill making changes to the federal rule-making process; a bill authorizing the Chairperson of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to set aside regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act. The Senate set aside a proposal to increase to the federal minimum wage, and failed on a procedural motion on a bill to extend and expand health care, education, and job-assistance programs and benefits for veterans.

FY2015 Budget

The Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is expected to decide next week whether her committee will mark up a FY15 budget resolution. Murray believes that another resolution is unnecessary as the Balanced Budget Act  (PL 113-67) passed by Congress in December already sets the spending caps for FY15. She is also concerned that pursuing another budget resolution could cause confusion for appropriators and may renew partisan battles. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chair of the House Budget Committee still intends to write a FY15 budget resolution

Two of the biggest budget questions for FY15 have already been settled – top-line discretionary spending is locked in at $1.014 trillion and defense funding is capped at $521.4 billion. The only question that remains is how members will divide the $492.5 billion domestic discretionary budget.

The President will unveil his FY15 budget request next Tuesday, which is expected to stick to the $1.014 trillion cap. Historical tables and analytical perspectives will be released the following week. The President will also propose a $56 billion “Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative” aimed at funding research, manufacturing, defense, education, and other priorities. The administration will also offer a plan to pay for this initiative by closing tax loopholes and changing spending programs.

FY15 Defense Budget Briefing

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel previewed the FY15 $496 billion Defense Department budget request on Monday and briefed the House and Senate “Big Eight” (Armed Services committees and Defense Appropriations subcommittees Chairs and Ranking Members) before the press conference. While the Pentagon request adheres to the cap for FY15, the department’s five-year budget plan exceeds spending limits in place for FY16-19 by a total of $115 billion. The FY15 request also includes an additional request of $26 billion for the Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative. The budget calls for further reductions in troop strength and force structure in all services, active and reserve; terminates or delays some modernization programs; protects higher priorities in procurement, research and development; and slows the growth of military compensation costs.

Some specific FY15 budget recommendations are as follows:

• BRAC in 2017
  • European Infrastructure Consolidation Review this spring to recommend further cuts
• Force Structure and Modernization Decisions
  • Preserves all three legs of nuclear triad
  • Special Ops forces grow from 66k today to 69.7k
• Air Force
  • Protects funding for the new bomber, the Joint Strike Fighter, and the new refueling tanker.
  • $1 billion for next-generation jet engine technology
  • Reduce the number of tactical air squadrons including the entire A-10 fleet replacing them with the F-35 in the early 2020s.
  • Retire the U-2 in favor of the unmanned Global Hawk system.
  • Reduce around-the-clock combat air patrols of Predator and Reaper aircraft from 65 to 55.
• Navy/Marine Corps
  • Maintain 11 carrier strike groups
  • Continue buying two destroyers and two attack submarines per year, as well as one additional Afloat Staging Base.
  • For the LCS, no new contract negotiations beyond 32 ships will go forward.
  • Navy will submit alternative proposals to procure a capable and lethal small surface combatant, generally consistent with the capabilities of a frigate. Navy will consider a new design, existing ship designs, and a modified LCS.
  • Marines number around 190,000 today, and they will draw down to 182,000.
• Army
  • Today 520,000 active-duty soldiers, planned originally to reduce to 490,000, but will further reduce to 440k-450k.
  • Army National Guard and Reserves draw down from 355,000 and 205,000 to 335,000 (Guard) and 195,000 (Reserves).
  • Terminate the Ground Combat Vehicle program. Redirect funds to next-generation platform.
  • Transfer Apache attack helicopters from Guard to active duty, and transfer Blackhawk helicopters to the Guard. Active duty to retire Kiowas and “JetRanger” training helicopters.
• Military Compensation
  • 1% raise in basic pay for military personnel – except general and flag officers whose pay is frozen for one year.
  • Tax free housing allowances reduced from 100% to 95% with 5% out of pocket contribution.
  • No reimbursement for renters insurance.
  • Reduce direct subsidies to military commissaries by $1B but not shutting them down. Overseas commissaries will continue to receive subsidies.
  • TRICARE health insurance programs – consolidate plans, and adjust deductibles and co-pays. Retirees and some active duty to pay more for deductibles and co-pays.
  • Awaiting results of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission’s report before pursuing other reforms in this area.

FY15 Appropriations

All of the House Appropriations subcommittees have set their deadlines and issued their instructions to members of Congress for submitting programmatic and language submissions for the FY15 appropriations process. The deadlines for each subcommittee are as follows:

House Defense Authorization Timeframe

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is working towards passing the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by early June this year. Members who wish to submit programmatic or language requests must do so by COB March 10^th. Despite the President’s budget request being a month behind schedule, the committee hopes to have subcommittee markups the last week of April, full committee markup the following week, and floor action the week of May 19^th. HASC Chairman Buck McKeon’s (R-CA) goal is to have the bill conferenced and done before the House and Senate adjourn in October for the mid-term elections.

Tax Reform

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) released a discussion draft of his tax reform framework this week. Camp is term-limited as chairman and may be looking to put his stamp on a tax overhaul effort that is likely to not progress until the next Congress. Camp’s plan would reshape policy from poverty aid to accounting mechanisms for multinational corporations, and cut tax rates for individuals and corporations while scaling back tax breaks like the mortgage interest deduction. The Joint Committee on Taxation scored the plan and said it would bring in an additional $700 billion in revenue over 10 years. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made no promises when asked about taking action on Camp’s tax-reform plan as Republican leaders have little interest in debating tax reform before the fall elections. Details on Camp’s plan can be found at: http://tax.house.gov.

Cybersecurity

NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) proposed two new building blocks this week and is inviting the public to comment on the draft documents. Building blocks are cybersecurity solutions that the NCCoE develops in collaboration with small groups of vendors and are meant to be applicable across multiple industry sectors. The comment period on these two new building blocks is open until March 28, 2014.

The first new building block is the Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) Building Block, which proposes an identity management system that allows multiple enterprises to exchange and validate employee attributes such as title, division, certifications, and training. This allows an organization to grant a non-employee access to a range of corporate resources using risk-based policy enforcement. (http://csrc.nist.gov/nccoe/Building-Blocks/abac.html)

The second is the Mobile Device Security for Enterprises Building Block, which proposes a system of commercially available technologies that provide enterprise-class protection for mobile platforms that access corporate resources. This building block will examine an array of security technologies that can enable enterprise risk management for users to work inside and outside the corporate network with a securely configured mobile device. (http://csrc.nist.gov/nccoe/Building-Blocks/mds.html)

Two other building blocks announced previously by NIST include the Trusted Geolocation in the Cloud (http://csrc.nist.gov/nccoe/Building-Blocks/Trusted-Geolocation-in-the-Cloud.html) and the Continuous Monitoring: Software Asset Management (http://csrc.nist.gov/nccoe/Building-Blocks/conmon.html).

Political Updates

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), the longest serving member of Congress in history, announced that he would not seek reelection this year. Dingell, 88, has served in the House of Representatives since 1955 and is on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell’s wife, Democratic National Committee member and former General Motors executive Debbie Dingell, announced today that she would run for his seat. The seat is safely Democratic.

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-ZA) also announced he will retire at the end of his term after 23 years in Congress. Pastor is on the Appropriations (Ranking Democrat, Transportation HUD subcommittee) and Intelligence Committees.

Next Week

The House will take up a flood insurance bill, legislation that would eliminate the individual mandate penalty under ObamaCare for the rest of 2014, a bill aimed at streamlining National Environmental Policy Act compliance, and a bill that would apply to all states a Bush Administration rule regarding coal mining and buffer zones around streams. They may also take up a bill blocking EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations for future power plants. The Senate will take up a number of nominations and begin consideration of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.

February 21, 2014

The House and Senate were in recess this week. The President announced new executive actions for strengthening patent reform, and issued an executive order aimed at cutting the processing and approval times for small businesses that export American-made goods and services by completing the International Trade Data System (ITDS) by December 2016. 

FY2015 Budget

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed this week that the White House would release its FY15 budget request in two stages. The March 4 release will include the main budget volume, key proposals, summary tables, agency-level information, and the detailed appendix. The March 11 release will include the budget’s historical tables and analytical perspectives volume.

The House Appropriations subcommittees have set their deadlines and issued their instructions to members of Congress for submitting programmatic and language submissions. The deadlines are as follows:

The Senate Appropriations subcommittees have not set deadlines yet, and may not do so until after they receive the FY15 budget request from the President.

The House Armed Services committee (HASC) has set the deadline for HASC members to submit legislative/budget proposals to the committee for the FY15 bill as COB on March 10th. Despite the budget being delayed by a month, HASC plans to stick to their usual timeline for markup meaning subcommittee markups could start the last week of April, followed by full committee markup the following week and floor consideration the week of May 19th. As there is a recess week in between potential full committee markup and floor consideration, the schedule may change.

As expected, HASC Chairman Buck McKeon sent a letter to each military service, combatant command, and the National Guard Bureau last Friday asking for an unfunded requirements list for FY15. HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith refused to sign on to the letter with McKeon as he said that the President was already compiling that list. The letters can be found on the HASC website at:

http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=84745E49-464D-4005-886F-5398B7EB8AC2

Department of Defense Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy

The Department of Defense (DoD) released its Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy (EMS) this week. DoD is working to identify ways to make more spectrum available for commercial use, and find technologies that enhance spectrum sharing, all while improving how DoD accesses spectrum. The strategy follows the release of a memorandum issued in 2010 by President Obama titled “Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution,” which requires 500 MHz of spectrum be made available for commercial use by 2020 and one issued in June 2013 titled “Expanding America’s Leadership in Wireless Innovation” which directed federal agencies and offices to accelerate efforts to allow and encourage shared access to spectrum allocated for federal use. The strategy did not specifically mention how many MHz it would releases for commercial use. The strategy can be found at:

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dodspectrumstrategy.pdf

Political Updates

Freshman Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-CA) announced that she would not seek reelection in 2014, and instead run for San Bernardino County supervisor. Nagrete McLeod is on the Agriculture and Veterans’ Affairs Committees.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) an eight-term Democrat, also announced that he would not seek reelection in 2014. Holt is best known for beating IBM computer “Watson” at Jeopardy. He has seats on the Education and Workforce and Natural Resources Committees.

February 14, 2014

The House and Senate passed a bill that suspends the debt ceiling until March 15, 2015 and a bill to repeal a cut to the cost-of-living adjustment for some military retirees’ pensions that helped pay for last year’s budget deal. These bills now go to the President for his signature.

FY2015 Budget

The House Budget Committee met this week and approved two proposals to overhaul the congressional budget process. The first, HR1872 the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2014, would require the use of fair-value accounting for federal credit programs. The other, HR 1869 the Biennial Budgeting and Enhanced Oversight Act of 2014, would move Congress from an annual to a biennial budget cycle. Congress has considered these budget process changes regularly with no success, mainly due to the opposition of appropriators. However, the Senate voted in favor of a non-binding biennial budget and appropriations cycle last March; and the recent shutdown may make the proposals more appealing to members of Congress.

Debt Ceiling

The last debt limit extension (PL 113-46) expired Feb. 7 and the Treasury Department has been using extraordinary measures to stave off the need for new borrowing authority in the meantime. The threat of a snow storm in DC caused House Republicans to abandon their original plan of considering a debt limit extension bill that included the repeal of the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for veterans. Instead, they took up a clean debt limit extension bill that passed the House by a vote of 221 to 201, supported by 193 Democrats and just 28 Republicans. The bill then headed to the Senate where it initially had difficulty getting enough votes to invoke cloture as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) demanded approval by a 60-vote threshold. Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) had to keep the vote open for over an hour. Ultimately, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) – both of whom are up for reelection this year and face tea party primary challengers – voted to break the filibuster. McConnell and Cornyn had hoped to avoid a vote like this in this election season, but were backed into a corner by Cruz. The Senate finally passed the bill by a vote of 55 to 43.

The extension suspends the current statutory limit on federal borrowing authority until March 15, 2015. A new debt limit would be automatically re-established on March 16, 2015 adjusted for any new borrowing that occurs between now and March 15. Congress will then have to revisit this issue. If Republicans take control of the Senate next year and keep control of the House, the next discussions on the debt ceiling could be very different than the discussions that occurred this week. Republicans may try to limit the Treasury’s ability to carry out extraordinary measures such as juggling funds among accounts after the government hits the debt ceiling. They are also interested in a prioritization plan that would require Treasury to pay bondholders, Social Security benefits recipients and members of the military ahead of others. Treasury says such prioritization is virtually impossible because of the large volume of payments the department makes.

Military Cost-Of-Living Adjustment

The Budget Control Act passed by Congress last December included a 1% cut to the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for military pensions starting in December 2015, affecting the benefits of current and future retired military personnel under the age of 62. The cuts were part of a tradeoff for easing some of the ongoing budget sequesters. The cuts proved politically unpopular with both parties, so the House and Senate voted this week on a bill (S25) to reverse those cuts and restore the benefits. The House passed the bill 326 to 90, and the Senate followed with a vote of 95 to 3. The restored cuts were paid for by an extension of the sequester on some mandatory spending through FY2024. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was originally opposed to the offsets included in the House bill, but reversed course during the week and decided to accept the House-passed bill. The pension cut now applies only to members of the armed forces who joined the military after Jan. 1, 2014. The President is expected to sign the bill.

Reid also filed cloture on S1982, the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act, a bill that would extend and expand health care programs for veterans as well as education and job-assistance benefits. That bill sponsored by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) also would repeal the cut in the COLA but offsets the cost by cutting overseas contingency operations funds. With Congress in recess next week, action on S1982 won’t occur until the week of Feb. 24 at the earliest.

National Security Council

The President issued an Executive Order this week officially changing the name of the National Security Staff and Homeland Security Council Staff to the National Security Council staff.

Cybersecurity

The Administration released their Cybersecurity Framework (https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cybersecurity-framework-021214-final.pdf) this week, which is a voluntary how-to cybersecurity guide for critical infrastructure (CI) organizations. The framework was part of the Executive Order the President released last February and was developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with input from businesses. The Framework is comprised of three components:

1. The Framework Core is a set of cybersecurity activities and informative references that are common across CI sectors. The cybersecurity activities are grouped by five functions that provide a high-level view of an organization’s management of cyber risks:
   • Identify
   • Protect
   • Detect
   • Respond
   • Recover

2. The Profiles can help organizations align their cybersecurity activities with business requirements, risk tolerances, and resources. Companies can use the Profiles to understand their current cybersecurity state, support prioritization, and to measure progress towards a target state.
3. The Tiers provide a mechanism for organizations to view their approach and processes for managing cyber risk. The Tiers range from Partial (Tier 1) to Adaptive (Tier 4) and describe an increasing degree of rigor in risk management practices, the extent to which cybersecurity risk management is informed by business needs, and its integration into an organization’s overall risk management practices.

Though the adoption of the Framework is voluntary, DHS is partnering with the CI community to encourage use of the Framework. They have established the Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C3 pronounced “C Cubed”) Voluntary Program (https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DHS-Critical-Infrastructure-Cyber-Community-C3-2-12-14.doc) as a public-private partnership to increase awareness and use of the Framework. The C3 Voluntary Program will connect companies, as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners, to DHS and other federal government programs and resources that will assist their efforts in managing their cyber risks. Participants will be able to share lessons learned, get assistance, and learn about free tools and resources that can help them.

NIST also released a roadmap (https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/roadmap-021214.pdf) detailing next steps for the framework. They plan on holding at least one workshop within the next six months to provide a forum for stakeholders to share experiences in using the Framework. NIST will also hold a privacy workshop in the second quarter of 2014 with the intention of advancing “the identification of technical standards and best practices” for mitigating cybersecurity impacts on privacy and civil liberties.

The White House does not plan on tracking which businesses actually implement the Framework recommendations; however they do plan to have some regulatory agencies propose ways to overhaul their existing regulations to make them consistent with these new cybersecurity guidelines. These plans will be revealed in May. And as it stands now, it appears cybersecurity legislation is a long shot this year as the Snowden NSA revelations have slowed momentum for information-sharing legislation.

Nominations

The President nominated Brad Carson to be an Under Secretary of the Army, William LaPlante, Jr. to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, and Francis Xavier Taylor to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.

Political Updates

Sen. John Walsh (D-MT) was sworn in on Tuesday filling the seat of former Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) who was recently confirmed as the United States Ambassador to China.

Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) announced this week that he will not seek reelection. Miller is the Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. His seat is considered to be one of the most competitive in California as President Obama won the district in 2012. Miller was one of the 28 Republicans who voted to increase the debt ceiling.

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee also announced his retirement this week. While Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is the next most senior Republican member of the panel, he is ineligible due to the fact that he has already served three terms as committee chair. After Young, the next most senior Republican committee member is Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX). Hastings district is considered safe for Republicans as Mitt Romney carried the seat by a 22-point margin in 2012.

Miller and Hastings retirements bring to 21 the number of Republican House members not seeking reelection, while 13 Democrats are retiring or seeking other office.

Next Week

The House and Senate are in recess next week.

February 7, 2014

The House passed a bill to promote hunting and shooting on public lands, a California Water bill, and package of public lands bills including land conveyances and legislation on grazing, the Chesapeake Bay and national parks. The Senate passed the farm bill conference report, which the President is scheduled to sign today. The Senate also confirmed Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to be Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and resumed consideration of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, but was unsuccessful in invoking cloture on the measure.

FY2015 Budget

The President is now expected to release his FY15 budget request in two installments – top lines will be released on March 4 and detailed budget justifications and appendixes will follow on March 11. In the meantime, some details of the President’s FY15 budget request for the Department of Defense were “leaked” this week, including word that the President’s FY15 budget request will come in above the congressional budget caps.

Some of these leaks served as trial balloons floated just in time for the administration to reverse course if needed. They include the following: another request for domestic base closures, a reduction in the Army National Guard force, a request to transfer 192 AH-61 Apache and 105 Lakota helicopters from the Army National Guard to active units in exchange for 111 UH-60 Black Hawks, termination of the Ground Combat Vehicle, elimination of one Navy aircraft carrier along with one carrier air wing, reversal of the Air Force’s previous decision to kill the Global Hawk Block 30, no funding for an upgrade program to replace avionics and radars on F-16s, and an early retirement of the USS George Washington reducing the carrier fleet to 10.

With the new FY15 budget, the Pentagon is expected to present a list of programs it would like to see funded if given an extra $26 billion. Former DOD Secretary Gates halted the practice of submitting an unfunded priorities list from each of the service components to Congress back in 2012. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) recently sent a letter to the current Secretary Hagel asking him to bring back the lists stating that they provide Members of Congress with, “essential and important information about current and emerging programmatic requirements.” Some defense analysts are concerned that bringing back the practice will have a negative effect on budget discipline inside DoD.

Debt Ceiling

The deadline for raising the debt ceiling is today. The Treasury Department will begin now to take extraordinary measures to push the deadline to the end of February. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned this week that the drawdown on the nation’s cash balance is faster now than at other times of the year as outlays are greater than net inflows due to the payment of income tax refunds. He urged Congress to act quickly as “simply delaying action on the debt limit can cause harm to our economy.” House Republicans are at odds over what to demand in exchange for raising the debt limit. Some want to see it linked to repealing the 2.3% medical device tax or repealing the cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for younger military retirees. Others want to link it to limiting IRS investigations of nonprofit groups, approving the Keystone XL pipeline, or repealing a section of the Affordable Care Act that helps insurance companies avoid risk. President Obama has said he will not negotiate on this issue and has demanded a “clean” increase. A vote on a debt limit extension bill could be delayed until late February, but time is running out as there are only seven more legislative days left in February for the House.

Cybersecurity

The minority staff of the Senate Homeland Security Government Affairs Committee released a report this week following an investigation they conducted of the federal government’s efforts on cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructure. The report focuses in on DHS, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, IRS, SEC, Department of Education, and the Department of Energy. The chairman of the committee, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) concurred with many of the findings in the report. A copy of their report can be found here.

The House Homeland Security Committee met this week and marked up H.R. 3696, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2014. The bill amends the 2002 law that created DHS to expand its scope to cover cybersecurity codifying DHS’ central role for cyberthreat information-sharing between the federal government and private sector. The bill is aimed at protecting crucial domestic industries by putting the private sector in charge of coming up with cyber standards, in contrast to the more government-driven method called for in the executive order released by the President last year. During the markup, Chairman McCaul (R-TX) offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute, which can be found here. In addition to Chairman McCaul’s amendment in the nature of a substitute, five other amendments were offered by Reps. Brooks (R-IN), Jackson Lee (D-TX), Barber (D-AZ), Payne (D-NJ) and Swalwell (D-CA), all of which passed by voice vote. Two amendments offered by Reps. Swalwell and Sanchez (D-CA) were withdrawn. Swalwell will modify his amendment to report language, and Sanchez will work with Rep. Sanford (R-SC) to redraft her amendment for floor consideration. The bill has been endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Chemistry Council (ACC), AT&T, Boeing, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), members of the energy and utilities sector, the GridWise Alliance, the financial services sector, the National Defense Industrial Association, Oracle, Entergy, Pepco, and the Professional Services Council.

At the Woodrow Wilson Center today, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson gave his first major policy address since taking office. He talked about the progress the administration was making on cybersecurity with the President’s Executive Order released last February. Johnson said that while the administration is making progress, there is still a need for legislation to do the following: provide DHS with new hiring and pay flexibility, modernize FISMA to reflect new technology, codify DHS’ responsibility to protect .gov/FedCiv networks, give legal clarity so that DHS can provide assistance to the private sector, give legal clarity so that DHS can exchange information with the private sector, and enact penalties for cyber crimes.

Political Updates

Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) announced earlier this week that he will resign from Congress on Feb. 18 to take a job with a law firm in Philadelphia. Andrews has represented the heavily Democratic Philadelphia-area suburbs since 1990. He has been facing a congressional ethics probe into his campaign finances for nearly a year. Andrews was the second most senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee. With his resignation, and the retirement announcement earlier this year from Ranking Democrat George Miller (D-CA), the third most senior Democrat on the committee, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), has expressed his interest in the leadership position. Andrews is also on the House Armed Services Committee. As for filling Rep. Andrew’s seat in Congress, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could schedule a special election on its own date or one that coincides with dates already scheduled for the regular primary and general elections. Andrews’s seat is in a heavily Democratic district and would likely remain that way.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 96 to 0 to confirm Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to be the next Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. His confirmation set off a chain reaction of changes at the top of key Senate committees. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is expected to take over the helm of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) will replace Wyden as the Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, vacating the leadership post of the Small Business Committee. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is thought to be the odds-on favorite for that chairmanship. As for who replaces Baucus in the Senate, Montana Governor Steve Bullock today named Lt. Gov John Walsh as Baucus’ temporary replacement. This would give Walsh time to build a Senate record and gain visibility to defend the seat against the expected Republican candidate, Rep. Steve Daines before the election later this year.

Today the White House announced it would nominate Robert Work, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and a former undersecretary of the Navy, to serve as the deputy defense secretary. Work has most recently served as CEO of the Center for a New American Security. Christine Fox has been serving as acting deputy defense secretary since Ashton Carter stepped down in December.

Next Week

Next week the House will consider a bill to reform the Consumer Financial Protection Board. House Democrats hold their annual issues retreat on Thursday and Friday, so the House will not be in session. The Senate will take up a measure to repeal the military-retiree COLA cut and may consider the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act and the California Water bill that were passed by the House this week. Finally, the Senate may also consider two competing bills offered by Sens. Gillibrand (D-NY) and McCaskill (D-MO that would overhaul the Pentagon’s sexual assault policy.

January 31, 2014

The House passed the farm bill conference report and a bill restricting the number of health insurance plans that cover abortion, while the Senate passed a bill that would delay National Flood Insurance Program premium increases for four years.

State of the Union Address

The President delivered his State of the Union address earlier this week stating that this is a “breakthrough year for America.” He proposed a number of Democratic priorities including restoring cuts in research spending, infrastructure investment, extension of unemployment insurance benefits, raising the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, automatic IRAs for employees without workplace savings plans, tax reform (closing loopholes and reducing incentives to ship jobs overseas), high tech manufacturing, patent reform, an “all of the above” energy strategy, cleaner energy economy, immigration reform, and training for future workers.

The President also stated that he would employ the use of Executive Orders to bypass Congress to implement his priorities, the first of which would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for those working on new federal contracts for services. Executive Orders cannot be overturned by Congress, but Congress can pass laws to cut funding for the order’s implementation. In an off election year, for each political party, it’s all about turning out their base. Republicans will use this move as an overreach of power, while Democrats will say that it was the only way of implementing the President’s agenda with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivered the Republican’s response and touched on issues important to Republicans contrasting them with those of Democrats. The Republican priorities included initiatives that champion free markets, “opportunity inequality” instead of “income inequality,” school voucher programs, repealing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and immigration reform focusing first on securing borders.

Cybersecurity

What was noticeably absent in the President’s State of the Union speech was the issue of cybersecurity. The President emphasized the issue in his speech last year and issued an executive order that has the government and industry collaborating on new, voluntary standards. This year he only said, “we’ll keep strengthening our defenses, and combat new threats like cyber-attacks.” Under the executive order, companies will be able to choose on their own how to improve their cybersecurity practices, and will receive yet to be specified benefits in exchange for implementing these new practices. These benefits could include faster federal assistance for critical infrastructure or preference when the government needs to buy new technology. The question is whether or not the President has the authority to offer these benefits without action from Congress. The standards should be finalized next month. Federal agencies have also been exploring whether or not they need to update existing regulations to take into account these new standards, and are expected to report their findings to the White House in February.

DOD and GSA released a report this week providing recommended baseline cybersecurity requirements aligning Federal cybersecurity risk management and acquisition processes. The goal is for the government to not buy products or services with inadequate built in cybersecurity. The report also recommends: (1) address cybersecurity when training the federal acquisition workforce, (2) use common cybersecurity definitions in federal acquisition regulations, (3) increase “government accountability” for cyber risk management, (4) institute a Federal Acquisition Cyber Risk Management Strategy, and (5) include a Requirement to Purchase from Original Equipment Manufacturers, Their Authorized Resellers, or Other “Trusted” Sources, Whenever Available, in Appropriate Acquisitions. DOD and GSA are now expected to develop an implementation plan that may be open to public comment.

A copy of the report can be found at:

https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/DOD-GSA-Report-Improve-Cybersecurity-Through-Acquisition-1-23-14.pdf

FY2015 Budget

The White House will release its FY15 budget request on March 4, a month after the deadline. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) began doing passback to federal agencies. Passback usually occurs at the end of November. During passback, OMB sends its decisions on agency budget requests to the federal agencies and the agencies can appeal the decisions prior to the final budget proposal. The process was delayed due to the late conclusion of the FY14 appropriations process.

FY2015 Appropriations

It was reported this week that House and Senate Appropriators may consider pre-conferencing the 302(b) spending allocations for the 12 FY15 appropriations bills before writing and marking them up in their respective committees. Appropriators used a similar approach to successfully reach agreement on the FY14 omnibus. Normally, the committees determine their 302(b)s independently of each other, and then wait until conference to negotiate the difference between each bill (some of which end up being up to $40 billion apart). Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has said that she will use the FY15 topline spending level of $1.014 trillion that was agreed to in the budget resolution and not wait for Congress to pass an FY15 budget resolution. Hearings in the House and Senate Appropriations committees could begin before the President submits his budget to Congress in March.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) this week announced the new rosters for the panel’s 12 subcommittees. Three Republican members – Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL), Rep. Mark Amodei (R- NV), and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) – were assigned to the appropriations committee last month, but did not receive their subcommittee assignments until this week. All three were appointed to the Legislative Branch subcommittee. Stewart and Roby were also assigned to the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee. Stewart was given a seat on the Interior-Environment subcommittee and Roby on Military Construction-Veterans’ Affairs. Amodei was also assigned to Commerce-Justice-Science and Financial Services subcommittees. Some other members already on the committee received new subcommittee assignments. New to the Defense subcommittee are Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and John Carter (R-TX). Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) got a seat on the Transportation HUD subcommittee and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) joins the State and Foreign Ops subcommittee. And finally, the Energy and Water subcommittee welcomes Reps. Tom Graves (R-GA) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE).

Debt Ceiling

In his State of the Union Address, the President warned Congress to not use the debt ceiling as a negotiation tactic. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that the debt ceiling will need to be raised by late February. Congress agreed to suspend enforcement of the debt limit until Feb. 7 in the deal passed last fall that reopened the federal government after the shutdown. The deal also allowed Treasury officials to use “extraordinary” measures to extend borrowing when the government approaches this new deadline. While Republicans are saying that they still want to get something in exchange for raising the debt limit, they have ruled out triggering a default. However, they may try to add policy riders including approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and changes to the Affordable Care Act, both of which could attract bipartisan support. The House could act on a debt limit bill as early as the second week in February, before they recess for the week of Presidents’ Day.

Political Updates

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democrat (former chairman) on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a 40-year veteran of Congress announced this week that he will not seek reelection in 2014. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) is next in line and may be interested in returning as the top Democrat on the committee. Dingell was the chairman of the committee until 2009 when Waxman successfully challenged him for the position. While a number of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) close confidants, which includes Waxman, have decided to not seek reelection, Pelosi announced this week that she will be running again in 2014.

First term congressman Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) submitted his letter of resignation to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday after spending a month in a rehabilitation facility for alcoholism. Radel was caught buying cocaine from an undercover federal agent last October. Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is expected to call for a special election, but has not set a date yet. The district is solidly Republican as Radel won it with 62% of the vote and Mitt Romney won it with 61% of the vote. Radel was on the Transportation and Infrastructure and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers as President Obama’s nominee to be the next Director of the National Security Agency, chief of the Central Security Service, and commander of the US Cyber Command. Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA Director since 2005, will retire March 14. Vice Adm. Rogers currently serves as the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command commander. While the NSA Director is not a Senate-confirmed position, Rogers will be called to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the hearing could become a venue for members to air their concerns over controversial NSA surveillance programs. The President also plans to appoint NSA’s chief operating officer, Richard Ledgett, to become its next deputy director.

The President made several other defense and homeland security nominations this week. Mike McCord was nominated for the position of Pentagon comptroller. He’s now the deputy comptroller and, earlier, had spent more than two decades working as a SASC staff member. McCord would take over for Robert Hale, who has held the position since Feb. 2009 and has expressed a desire to retire. Miranda Ballentine, Walmart’s director of sustainability and renewable energy, was nominated to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics, replacing Terry Yonkers who resigned. Brian McKeon was named to replace Kathleen Hicks as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. McKeon has been chief of staff of the National Security Staff and deputy national security adviser for Vice President Joe Biden. And Christine Wormuth, now deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and force development, was nominated to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, replacing James Miller, Jr. If confirmed, Wormuth would become the second woman to serve in the post, the first being Michèle Flournoy. And at DHS, Reginald Brothers, Jr. was nominated to be Under Secretary for Science and Technology replacing Tara O’Toole.

Next week, the House may consider a California drought bill and the Sportsmen’s Heritage And Recreational Enhancement Act, while the Senate will take up the farm bill conference report.