May 2, 2014
The House passed the FY15 Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, as well as a bill exempting expatriate health plans from the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The House also unanimously approved by voice vote the Senate passed version of the DATA Act, a transparency measure requiring federal bodies to publish spending information in clear, standardized formats. The President is expected to sign this bill into law. The Senate failed in a vote of 54 to 42 to invoke cloture on a bill to raise the hourly minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.
FY2015 Appropriations
The House marked up their $51.2 billion FY15 Commerce Justice Science (CJS) Appropriations bill in subcommittee this week. The bill funds the Departments of Commerce and Justice as well as NASA and other federal research agencies. This bill is a $398 million cut from the FY14 bill, which was funded at $51.6 billion. It will be marked up in full committee next week. DOJ is the big winner with a $383 million increase over FY14, followed by NASA with an increase of $250 million. The National Science Foundation also receives a record high of $7.4 million. But those increases come at a cost with the bill eliminating several existing programs and cutting funding for programs like the Community Oriented Police Services hiring grants.
The FY15 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA) and Legislative Branch spending bills were considered on the House floor this week. The $71.5 billion MilCon-VA moved under an open rule allowing House members to offer any amendments, while the $3.3 billion Legislative Branch bill moved under a structured rule limiting amendments. The House first passed the MilCon-VA bill by a vote of 416 to 1 after considering around two dozen amendments. The bill provides $165 billion in FY15 for the VA and military construction projects. One unsuccessful amendment offered by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) would have barred funds from being used to construct, alter, or expand a facility in the US for housing Guantanamo Bay detainees. Members did approve an amendment that would prohibit funds from being used for BRAC activities.
The Legislative Branch spending bill passed by a vote of 402 to 14. The bill holds funding steady for member offices’ budgets and maintains the member pay freeze that has been in place since 2010. An amendment providing $500,000 for sexual harassment training for House offices was approved, but one cutting funding for the Capitol Visitors Center was defeated.
During the full committee markup next week, the committee is also expected to agree on the 302(b) spending allocations for the ten remaining FY15 appropriations bills. After CJS, the committee is expected to take up the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development bill next Wednesday and the Homeland Security spending bill after the mid-May recess. The Transportation-HUD spending bill is the bill that triggered the collapse of the appropriations process last year. The prospects this year for the bill are a little brighter with a bipartisan discretionary top-line figure in place and a temporary fix to the Highway Trust Fund expected this year.
The Senate continues to hold hearings on the FY15 budget and is expected to move the MilCon-VA and Legislative Branch bills in late May/early June. The MilCon-VA bill may be marked up in full committee on May 22.
| Appropriations Subcommittee | House Action | Senate Action |
| Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies | ||
| Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies | Subcommittee: April 30 | |
| Defense | ||
| Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies | ||
| Financial Services and General Government | ||
| Homeland Security | ||
| Interior | ||
| Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies | ||
| Legislative Branch | Subcommittee: April 3
Full Committee: April 9 Floor: May 1 |
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| Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies | Subcommittee: April 3
Full Committee: April 9 Floor: April 30 |
Full Committee: May 22? |
| State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs | ||
| Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies | Subcommittee: May 7? |
FY15 National Defense Authorization Act
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) marked up their FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in subcommittee this week. The subcommittees’ markups are being incorporated into the full committee markup, which will take place next Wednesday May 7 at 10 am. The text of the full committee markup will be released on Monday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) FY15 NDAA markup schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
9:30 a.m. — Subcommittee on Airland. OPEN. Room SD-G50.
11:00 a.m. —Subcommittee on Seapower. CLOSED. Room SR-222.
2:00 p.m. —Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. CLOSED. Room SR-222.
3:30 p.m. —Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support. OPEN. Room SD-G50.
5:00 p.m. —Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. OPEN. Room SD-G50.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
10:00 a.m. —Subcommittee on Personnel. OPEN. Room SD-G50.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
2:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m. Full Committee. CLOSED. Room SR-222.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
9:30 a.m. — 9:00 p.m. [with a break for lunch] Full Committee. CLOSED. Room SR-222.
If markup is not completed on Thursday, May 22, then:
Friday, May 23, 2014
9:30 a.m. — Completion Full Committee. CLOSED. Room SR-222.
Homeland Security
The House Homeland Security Committee marked up three bills in full committee this week: HR 4228, the DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act; HR 4007, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Authorization and Accountability Act; and HR 3283, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2013.
Cybersecurity
The Senate Intelligence Committee released a draft cybersecurity bill this week that would enable companies to share threat data with federal agencies without fear of getting sued. The new bill states that no lawsuit may be brought against a company for sharing threat data with “any other entity or the federal government” to prevent, investigate, or mitigate a cyberattack. The bill also defines cyber threat indicators (data that can be shared) as “information that indicates, describes, or is necessary to identify:
- malicious reconnaissance, including anomalous patterns of communications that appear to be transmitted for the purpose of gathering technical information related to a cybersecurity threat;
- a method of defeating a security control;
- a security vulnerability;
- a method of causing a user with legitimate access to an information system or information that is stored on, processed by, or transiting an information system to unwittingly enable the defeat of a security control;
- malicious cyber command and control;
- the actual or potential harm caused by an incident, including information exfiltrated when it is necessary in order to describe a cybersecurity threat;
- any other attribute of a cybersecurity threat, if disclosure of such attribute is not otherwise prohibited by law; or
- any combination thereof.”
The bill is prompting objections from civil liberties advocates, who argue that the legislation in its current form is too sweeping. There is no timeline right now for when the bill will be introduced. A copy of the bill can be found at:https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?attachment_id=185.
Big Data
The White House released their “Big Data: Seizing Opportunities and Preserving Values” report today. The 3-month review was led by John Podesta with input from Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce; Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy; John Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Jeffrey Zients, Director, National Economic Council. The 52-page report was requested by President Obama as part of his January speech on National Security Agency reform.
The report makes six policy recommendations:
- ADVANCE THE CONSUMER PRIVACY BILL OF RIGHTS. The Department of Commerce should take appropriate consultative steps to seek stakeholder and public comment on big data developments and how they impact the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and then devise draft legislative text for consideration by stakeholders and submission by the President to Congress.
- PASS NATIONAL DATA BREACH LEGISLATION. Congress should pass legislation that provides for a single national data breach standard along the lines of the Administration?s May 2011 Cybersecurity legislative proposal.
- EXTEND PRIVACY PROTECTIONS TO NON-U.S. PERSONS. The Office of Management and Budget should work with departments and agencies to apply the Privacy Act of 1974 to non-U.S. persons where practicable, or to establish alternative privacy policies that apply appropriate and meaningful protections to personal information regardless of a person?s nationality.
- ENSURE DATA COLLECTED ON STUDENTS IN SCHOOL IS USED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. The federal government must ensure that privacy regulations protect students against having their data being shared or used inappropriately, especially when the data is gathered in an educational context.
- EXPAND TECHNICAL EXPERTISE TO STOP DISCRIMINATION. The federal government?s lead civil rights and consumer protection agencies should expand their technical expertise to be able to identify practices and outcomes facilitated by big data analytics that have a discriminatory impact on protected classes, and develop a plan for investigating and resolving violations of law.
- AMEND THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT. Congress should amend ECPA to ensure the standard of protection for online, digital content is consistent with that afforded in the physical world?including by removing archaic distinctions between email left unread or over a certain age.
A copy of the report can be found at:https://www.vantagepointstrat.com/?attachment_id=186.
Political Updates
The Senate confirmed by voice vote Robert Work as Deputy Secretary of Defense. Work was most recently CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Prior to CNAS, Work was the Under Secretary of the Navy and had a 27-year career as an officer in the US Marine Corps. Christine Fox has been serving as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense during the transition.
Defense Department Chief Information Officer Teri Takai announced this week that she is stepping down. Her last day is today. A successor has not yet been named and there is some speculation that the administration may not pick a successor instead leaving the Defense CIO position in the hands of Senior Executive Service level staff until the end of President Obama’s second term. Takai became the Defense CIO in 2010.
The White House nominated Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s chief of staff, Mark Lippert to become the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea. Before working in Hagel’s office, Lippert was the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs from 2011 to 2012. Lippert was also an intelligence officer for Naval Special Operations Forces and a senior foreign policy adviser in Barack Obama’s Senate office and in his 2008 presidential campaign.
At the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), agency director LTG Michael Flynn and his deputy, David Shedd, announced this week that they will depart the agency and retire by early Fall 2014. LTG Flynn has served as the DIA Director since July 2012, while Shedd joined the agency as deputy director in August 2010. LTG Flynn is expected to be replaced by US Army Lt. Gen. Mary Legere, who would be the first female DIA director if she is nominated and confirmed.
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) was indicted earlier this week on 20 criminal charges including mail and wire fraud, filing false tax returns and health care payments, hiring undocumented workers, perjury, and obstruction of justice. While Grimm has denied any wrongdoing, he is vacating his House Financial Services Committee seat. Grimm will remain on the ballot for the November elections.
Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA) announced this week that he would not seek re-election in 2014. While House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) suggested to McAllister that he resign, McAllister said that he would not leave office before his term was finished.
Next Week
The House will take up HR 4438, the American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2014; HR 10, the Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act; and a privileged resolution finding former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with the subpoena issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Senate will take up S. 2262, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, with a separate vote on the Keystone XL pipeline as a possibility.