December 12, 2014
The House and Senate completed action on a number of bills this week and are poised to adjourn for the year pending action on some final key measures. In addition to passing a short-term (two day) FY15 continuing resolution, the end of year flurry of activity included passage of HR 4681, the FY15 Intelligence Authorization bill; S 1691, the Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act of 2013; HR 4007 the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014; S 2444, the Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014; HR 5057, the EPS Service Parts Act of 2014; and HR 2640, the Central Oregon Jobs and Water Security Act. Both chambers also passed four cybersecurity bills – S 2519, the National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014; S 2521, the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014; HR 2952, the Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act; and S 1353, the Cybersecurity Act of 2013. All of these bills will be sent to the President for his signature. The Senate is expected to pass the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act this afternoon and then take up the FY15 “cromnibus.” The Senate is also expected to vote on S 2244, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act before adjourning. If the Senate passes these measures, they will also be sent to the President for his signature. The Senate also passed S 2828, the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 and S 2785, the Safe and Secure Drinking Water Protection Act of 2014, both of which have not been considered by the House.
FY15 Appropriations
House and Senate Appropriations staff worked through last weekend to iron out final details of a year-end FY15 spending package, which was released late Tuesday evening. The final $1.013T omnibus/continuing resolution (CR), or cromnibus, included full-year funding for 11 appropriations bills and a short-term CR for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in protest of the president’s recent executive orders on immigration. The CR maintains DHS funding at the current FY14 level, and expires on February 27, 2015. The bill meets the $521 billion defense and $492 billion non-defense budget caps. The bill also includes $64 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding to combat ISIL, to train and equip Iraqi allies, and to reinforce European countries facing Russian aggression; and a total of $5.4 billion in emergency funding to address the domestic and international Ebola crisis.
With the current CR expiring on Thursday, December 11, Congress had to act quickly to get a new spending agreement in place to avoid a government shutdown. The House faced some opposition from conservative Republicans over funding levels and Democrats over policy riders, and had to delay final passage of the measure until later Thursday evening. The measure finally passed by a vote of 219 to 206 with 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats voting in favor of the bill. If the bill had not passed, House Republicans were prepared to offer a three month CR setting themselves up to re-write the bills to their liking next year when they control both chambers. Less than three hours away from a government shutdown the House also passed a two-day CR that was also approved by the Senate and signed into law by the President last night. The short-term CR gives the Senate a few extra days to consider and pass the cromnibus package. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) cannot call up the bill until after finishing the FY15 defense authorization bill. Absent a consent agreement, a cloture vote would take place under the rules on Sunday with a final vote on Monday. However, the two-day CR expires Saturday at midnight. The President has indicated that he will sign the cromnibus.
Links to the report language for each section of the “cromnibus” conference report:
Introduction:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-Intro.pdf
Agriculture:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-A.pdf
Commerce Justice Science:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-B.pdf
Defense:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-C.pdf
Energy and Water:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-D.pdf
Financial Services:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-E.pdf
Interior:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-F.pdf
Labor HHS:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-G.pdf
Legislative branch:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-H.pdf
MilCon/Veterans Affairs:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-I.pdf
State/Foreign Operations:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-J.pdf
Transportation/HUD:
http://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/113-1/PDF/113-HR83sa-ES-K.pdf
Tax Extenders
The House passed two tax measures last week – HR 647, the ABLE Act of 2014 and HR 5771, the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014. HR 5771 is a short-term tax extenders package retroactively reviving more than 50 expired tax breaks for 2014 only. HR 647 is a tax measure designed to provide families who care for people with disabilities with tax-preferred savings accounts. Before transmitting the bill to the Senate, the House added the text of HR 647 as Division B to HR 5771. It’s still not clear if the Senate will take up this one-year extension or take no action before they adjourn for the year. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is not a fan of the legislation and has not decided yet if he will object to a unanimous consent agreement.
FY15 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Agreement
The Senate is expected to pass the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this afternoon around 3 pm. The House passed the bill last week by a vote of 300 to 119. The $584.2 billion measure was named after the retiring chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee – “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.”The bill authorizes $521.3 billion in base discretionary spending ($495.5B for the Department of Defense and $17.9 billion for the defense activities of the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board) and $63.7 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).
The bill text can be found here:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=926D63B6-5E50-49FC-99EF-A59B98825265
The joint explanatory statement can be found here:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=78ED7A79-9066-43FD-AA75-1D8F14B4B4A2
A summary from HASC Republicans can be found here:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=F477F464-90AE-4B7A-AD7A-438065807D04
A summary from HASC Democrats can be found here:
https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/govdoc-4581940.pdf
Political Updates
The Senate confirmed Franklin Orr, Jr. to be Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy and Ellen Dudley Williams to be Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
Next Week
The House is expected to adjourn for the year. The Senate may be in session completing action on appropriations, tax extenders, and TRIA. The new 114th Congress will convene on January 6.