June 5, 2015
The House passed H.R. 1335, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act and HR 2578, the FY16 Commerce Justice Science appropriations bill, and began consideration of HR 2577, the FY16 Transportation HUD appropriations bill. The Senate reconvened on Sunday and voted 77 to 7 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to HR 2048, the USA Freedom Act. They passed the bill on Tuesday by a vote of 67 to 32 defeating several Republican amendments in the process. President Obama then signed the legislation into law reauthorizing key USA PATRIOT Act programs through December 15, 2019. The Senate also passed by unanimous consent HR 2146, a bill extending the exemption from the 10% penalty tax for early distributions from a government retirement to specified federal law enforcement officers, customs and border protection officers, federal firefighters, and air traffic controllers who have reached age 50. The bill now goes to the President for his signature. And the Senate confirmed the nomination of Michael Keith Yudin to be Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the Department of Education. Finally, the Senate began consideration of HR 1735 (S 1736), the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act.
FY16 Appropriations
House
The House considered two FY16 spending bills (Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation HUD) on the House floor this week and marked up two more bills (State Foreign Operations and Defense) in subcommittee and full committee. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up their FY16 Interior spending bill in subcommittee next Wednesday (June 10).
Commerce-Justice-Science
The FY16 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill was the fourth FY16 spending bill passed by the House this year after it passed by a vote of 242 to 183. Twelve Democrats voted for the $51.4B measure while 10 Republicans voted against it after they voted on several contentious amendments involving Cuba, ammunition, immigration, and marijuana. The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy that included a veto threat for the bill.
White House Statement of Administration Policy on House FY16 CJS Appropriations Bill:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/114/saphr2578r_20150601.pdf
Transportation HUD
After passing the FY16 CJS spending bill, the House turned its attention to the $55.3B FY16 Transportation HUD appropriations bill. Consideration of the $55.3B measure will continue next week with a vote on final passage likely on Tuesday. While House leadership claims that an unexpectedly large number of amendments forced them to push off the final vote to next week, conservative Republicans could join a united Democratic front opposing the bill over spending levels. The Administration issued a veto threat for this bill citing objections to funding levels as well as the inclusion of Cuba policy provisions restricting travel.
White House Statement of Administration Policy on House FY16 Transportation HUD Appropriations Bill:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/114/saphr2577r_20150601.pdf
Defense
The House Appropriations Committee approved their FY16 Defense Appropriations bill in full committee by voice vote this week. The bill provides $578.6B, which includes $88.4B in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. This is an increase of $24.4B above FY15 enacted levels and $800M above the President’s FY16 budget request. The bill now heads to the House floor for consideration.
Two amendments were adopted during the full committee markup: a manager’s amendment offered by Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) and an amendment adding a sense of Congress that “Congress has a constitutional duty to debate and determine whether or not to authorize the use of military force against ISIL.” The amendment was offered by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and was adopted by a vote of 29 to 22.
During full committee consideration of the bill, Democrats offered amendments attempting to reallocate the Republicans’ $38B addition to the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund to the base budget. Democrats claimed the additional OCO funds were being used to evade the spending caps of the Budget Control Act (BCA). While they were unsuccessful in their attempts, the fight over the OCO account is expected to spill over to the floor when the bill is considered later this month.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shaun Donovan sent a letter to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) this week sharing the Administration’s concerns with funding levels, the use of OCO funds for base requirements, and several policy riders in the committee’s FY16 Defense Appropriations bill.
OMB Director Donovan Letter to Chairman Rogers:
State Foreign Operations
The House Appropriations subcommittee on State Foreign Operations marked up their $47.8B FY16 spending bill this week. The bill appropriates $40.5B in base discretionary funding and $7.3B for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO)/Global War on Terror (GWOT) funding. The bill is $1.4B below the FY15 enacted level and $6.1B below the President’s FY16 budget request. The bill includes a provision prohibiting the use of funds for an embassy or diplomatic facility in Cuba beyond what was already in existence prior to the President’s announcement proposing changes to the US-Cuba policy. The bill doesn’t include any funding for the International Monetary Fund and several international climate change funds.
Senate
The Senate Appropriations Defense and Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittees will mark up their spending bills Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, respectively. The full committee will mark up both bills Thursday, along with the Legislative Branch appropriations measure.
OMB Director Donovan sent two letters to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) this week sharing the Administration’s concerns with funding levels and provisions in the committee’s FY16 Energy and Water and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bills.
OMB Director Donovan Letter to Chairman Cochran re: Energy & Water:
OMB Director Donovan Letter to Chairman Cochran re: Military Construction:
Status of FY16 Appropriations Bills
| Subcommittee | House Action | Senate Action |
| Agriculture | Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Commerce-Justice-Science | Subcommittee: 5/14/15
Full Committee: 5/20/15 Floor: 6/3/15 |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Defense | Subcommittee: 5/20/15
Full Committee: 6/2/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Energy & Water | Subcommittee: 4/15/15
Full Committee: 4/22/15 Floor: 5/1/15 |
Subcommittee: 5/19/15
Full Committee: 5/21/15 Floor: |
| Financial Services | Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Homeland Security | Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Interior-Environment | Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Labor-HHS-Education | Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Legislative Branch | Subcommittee: 4/23/15
Full Committee: 4/30/15 Floor: 5/19/15 |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Military Construction-VA | Subcommittee: 4/15/15
Full Committee: 4/22/15 Floor: 4/30/15 |
Subcommittee: 5/19/15
Full Committee: 5/21/15 Floor: |
| State-Foreign Operations | Subcommittee: 6/3/15
Full Committee: Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
| Transportation-HUD | Subcommittee: 4/29/15
Full Committee: 5/13/15 Floor: |
Subcommittee:
Full Committee: Floor: |
FY16 National Defense Authorization Act
The Senate began floor consideration of its FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week and currently has more than 200 amendments filed for next week’s debate. They hope to finish work on the $621B bill before the end of next week. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) urged Democrats not to hold up the bill over spending caps even though he would also like to see the sequester caps repealed. While Democrats did not oppose the motion to move to consider the bill on the floor, they could still filibuster the final bill.
The Administration issued a veto threat for the bill in the Statement of Administration Policy they released this week. They cited several concerns with the bill including the use of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account as a workaround for the budget spending caps, the failure to authorize a new round of Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC), the inclusion of Guantanamo detainee provisions that would impede efforts to close the facility, and some defense acquisition reforms.
And finally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their cost estimate for the bill this week. CBO calculated that if funds were appropriated for this authorization bill, $515.5 billion of the authorized amounts would count against the defense cap for FY16 set in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). Another $0.2 billion would count against the nondefense cap. An additional $88.9 billion would be authorized for OCO that, if appropriated, would not count against the caps; of that amount, $49.9 billion would be for war-related activities, while the remaining $39.0 billion would be used for “base budget” activities that in recent years have counted against the defense caps.
White House Statement of Administration Policy on S 1736:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/114/saps1376s_20150602.pdf
CBO Cost Estimate on S 1736:
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/50266
Political Updates
Two new Republican candidates threw their hats into the ring this week for the 2016 Presidential race – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and former Texas Governor Rick Perry. They join the already crowded Republican field that includes Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former NY Governor George Pataki, and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is expected to announce his candidacy on June 15. On the Democrat side, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island Governor and Senator (and former Republican) Lincoln Chaffee announced their candidacies. They join former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The 1st Congressional District of Mississippi held a special-election runoff on Tuesday after no candidate received 50% of the vote in the special election on May 12. Republican District Attorney Trent Kelly won the runoff with 70% of the vote and will succeed the late Rep. Alan Nunnelee.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Monday reassigned the Acting Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after the agency’s Inspector General briefed the Secretary on a report analyzing vulnerabilities in airport security. The TSA’s acting administrator, Melvin Carraway, is being reassigned to serve in the Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at DHS Headquarters and Acting Deputy Director Mark Hatfield will lead the TSA until a new administrator is appointed. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Pete Neffenger was nominated for the position earlier this year by President Obama and is awaiting a Senate vote on his confirmation. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved Neffenger’s confirmation by voice vote in an off-the-floor meeting this week. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled a hearing on his nomination for June 10.
Todd Zinser, Inspector General at the Commerce Department, retired suddenly on Wednesday after 31 years of public service.
President Obama nominated Marie Therese Dominguez to be Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration at the Department of Transportation, Sarah Feinberg to be Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration at the Department of Transportation, Scott Allen to be the United States Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Mary Kendall to be Inspector General at the Department of the Interior.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter selected Air Force Gen. Darren McDew to serve as the next commander of U.S. Transportation Command. McDew is currently serving as commander of Air Mobility Command. He will replace Gen. Paul Selva, who was nominated to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dan Kaufman, director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, was named deputy director of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group.
Ned Price was promoted to be the spokesperson for the White House National Security Counsel. Price was the senior director for strategic communications at the NSC, which he joined in 2014 after serving as spokesperson and analyst for the CIA.
Next Week
The House will resume consideration of HR 2577, the FY16 Transportation HUD appropriations bill. The House will also take up HR 2289, the Commodity End-User Relief Act, HR 2393, the Repealing Country of Origin Labeling Act, and the FY16 Intelligence Authorization act. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has also tentatively scheduled a vote late in the week on the Senate-passed fast-track authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance package (HR 1314) and two other trade bills. The Senate will resume consideration of S 1376, the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act.