January 9, 2015
The House and Senate convened and gaveled in the 114th Congress this week, adopting new rules packages and swearing in newly elected members. The President returned from his Hawaiian holiday, but quickly hit the road to preview his State of the Union themes. First up in the House was HR 22, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2015, a bill exempting veterans and reservists from being counted as full-time employees under Obamacare. The bill passed under suspension of the rules. The House also passed HR 30, the Save American Workers Act; HR 3, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act (but fell short of a veto override); HR 37, the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act; HR 23, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization; and HR 26, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. The Senate also passed HR 26, which now goes to the President for his signature, and began consideration of S1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act. And the Office of Management and Budget announced this week that the White House will release its fiscal year 2016 budget on Monday, February 2, meeting the mandated deadline for the first time in five years.
Leadership Elections
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was re-elected speaker of the House this week, overcoming an effort by House conservatives to oust him as speaker. Boehner garnered a total of 216 votes out of 408 cast. The 25 Republicans not voting for Boehner either voted present or voted for other candidates. Two members of the Senate received one vote each for speaker, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), as did retired four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. A number of House Democrats from New York missed the vote as they attended the funeral of former NY Governor Mario Cuomo on Tuesday.
In the Senate, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was sworn in as the Senate President Pro Tempore this week making him third in line to the Presidency after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. Since 1890, the most senior senator in the majority party has generally been chosen to be the President Pro Tempore.
Senate Committee Assignments
The Senate approved organizing resolutions this week affirming 114th Congress committee assignments for the majority and minority.
Majority Committee Assignments:
https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=330
Minority Committee Assignments:
https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?p=329
FY15 Homeland Security Appropriations
Eleven of the 12 FY2015 appropriations bills were included in the FY15 omnibus appropriations measure, which was signed into law on December 16 and became Public Law No. 113-235. The Department of Homeland Security was the only federal agency that didn’t get a full appropriations measure as part of this omnibus spending deal. DHS was funded through February 27, 2015 in the omnibus bill allowing Republicans more time to craft a response to President Obama’s immigration executive order. House Republicans released a $39.7B spending bill this afternoon that they are planning on considering on the House floor next week. The House Rules Committee will consider the bill on Monday, and it is expected that a few amendments will be made in order to be offered on the House Floor.
House FY15 DHS Appropriations Bill Text:
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20150112/BILLS-114-HR240-IH.pdf
House FY15 DHS Appropriations Explanatory Statement:
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20150112/114-HR240-ES.pdf
2015 Key Dates
Now that the new Congress has convened, here are some key dates to keep in mind for 2015:
Jan 20 State of the Union Address
Feb 2 President’s FY16 budget request due to Congress
Feb 27 FY15 DHS appropriations continuing resolution expires
March 15 Debt ceiling suspension expires, Treasury can use extraordinary measures to buy more time
March 31 “Doc Fix” expires
April 15 Budget resolution deadline for Congress (no penalty if missed)
May 31 Surface Transportation authorization expires
June 1 USA Patriot Act provisions expire
June 30 Export Import Bank charter expires
October 1 Fiscal Year 2016 begins
Senate Appropriations Ranking Members
Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced the subcommittee ranking members this week.
Agriculture
Ranking Member: Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Commerce, Justice, Science
Ranking Member: Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Defense
Ranking Member: Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Energy and Water
Ranking Member: Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Financial Services
Ranking Member: Christopher Coons (D-DE)
Homeland Security
Ranking Member: Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Interior
Ranking Member: Tom Udall (D-NM)
Labor HHS
Ranking Member: Patty Murray (D-WA)
Legislative Branch
Ranking Member: Brian Schatz
Military Construction
Ranking Member: Jon Tester (D-MT)
State Foreign Operations
Ranking Member: Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Transportation HUD
Ranking Member: Jack Reed (D-RI)
As for the subcommittee chairmen, the ranking Republican appropriators for the subcommittees in the last Congress are now expected to claim the gavels. But a few subcommittee chairmanships are up for grabs as members have either retired or departed the committee.
Senate Armed Services Committee Leadership
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) released its list of subcommittee chairmen and ranking members this week. While SASC Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) had considered adding a new subcommittee for cybersecurity, he instead opted to add the cybersecurity portfolio to the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee as the panel is restricted to six subcommittees by Senate rules. The new subcommittee chairmen and ranking members are as follows:
Airland Subcommittee
Chairman: Tom Cotton (R-AR)
Ranking Member: Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee
Chairman: Deb Fischer (R-NE)
Ranking Member: Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Personnel Subcommittee
Chairman: Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Ranking Member: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee
Chairman: Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Ranking Member: Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Seapower Subcommittee
Chairman: Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Ranking Member: Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Strategic Forces Subcommittee
Chairman: Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Ranking Member: Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Cybersecurity
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the former ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee reintroduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) this week. The bill provides legal safe-harbor for companies sharing cyberthreat information with the federal government and each other. Privacy advocates are concerned that the bill could give NSA more access to the private information of Americans. Ruppersberger said that he was reintroducing the bill because of the severe cyber attack on Sony by North Korea. CISPA passed the House last spring.
Political Updates
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced this week that she would not seek re-election in 2016. Boxer is the junior senator from California and was first elected in 1992. She holds the ranking member position on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Speculation over who will run for her seat centers on four candidates: Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California; Gavin Newsome; current Lieutenant Governor of California and former mayor of San Francisco; Tom Steyer, a wealthy hedge fund manager and environmentalist; and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Mayor of Los Angeles.
President Obama nominated Allan Landon to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Landon is a Partner in Community BanCapital and was the former CEO of the Bank of Hawaii.
The President also nominated David Cohen to be Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Cohen is currently the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury. Before joining the Treasury Department, Cohen was a partner in the law firm of WilmerHale, where he focused on complex civil litigation, white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and anti-money laundering counseling.
And, the President submitted the following nominations to the Senate this week: Therese McMillan to be Federal Transit Administrator, Dava Newman to be Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Marisa Lago to be a Deputy United States Trade Representative, and Russell Deyo to be Under Secretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security.
The White House also announced that Debra Eschmeyer will be joining the staff as the Executive Director of Let’s Move! and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition policy replacing Sam Kass who departed in December. Eschmeyer co-founded FoodCorps, a national AmeriCorps service program whose members teach hands-on lessons about food and nutrition; build and tend school gardens; teach cooking lessons; and help change school cafeteria menus to give kids healthy food.
Next Week
The House will only be in session Monday through Wednesday, and during that time will consider HR 185, the Regulatory Accountability Act; HR 37, the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act; and legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The Senate will resume consideration of S.1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act.