November 6, 2015
The House passed a more than $325B six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill by a vote of 363 to 64, and agreed to a bicameral conference on the legislation. The bill includes a provision to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. The current authorization expires on Nov. 20. The House also passed under suspension of the rules a revised FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (S 1356) by a vote of 370 to 58. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration early next week. The Senate rejected two cloture motions on S 1140, the Federal Water Quality Protection Act (vote 58 to 41) and HR 2685, the FY16 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (vote 51 to 54). The Senate did invoke cloture on HR 2029, the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. And the Senate passed a joint resolution (SJ Res 22) providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Finally, ending a seven year review process, President Obama announced this morning that he was rejecting the request from a Canadian company to build the 1,179 mile Keystone XL oil pipeline. The President said his decision was based on his belief that the pipeline would not make a long-term, meaningful contribution to our economy and would not lower gas prices for American consumers.
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Election
Ways and Means Committee Chair
The House Republican Steering Committee tapped Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) as the next chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee filling the vacancy left by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI). The House 33-member GOP steering committee chose Brady over Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) as the next chair of the powerful tax-writing committee. Tiberi may be offered the top GOP position on the Joint Economic Committee (replacing Brady) as a “consolation prize.” And with Brady now at the helm of the committee, this opens up the chair of the Health subcommittee. The GOP has a seniority-based bidding system for the vacancy. If a current subcommittee chair opts to switch to the Health subcommittee, this could set off a ripple effect of reshuffling.
FY16 Appropriations
The President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 on Monday. With the discretionary spending caps now set for FY16 and FY17, Congress began work on their FY16 bills. The Senate took up the FY16 Defense Appropriations bill but could not get the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture. Senate Democrats blocked the bill to use it as future leverage to ensure that Republicans pass all of the FY16 spending bills.
During the debate on the Senate floor over the defense spending bill, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said that there was an “understanding” of how they would move forward on the FY16 appropriations bills. The “understanding” led to Democrats allowing consideration in the Senate of the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. Cloture was invoked on that bill by a vote of 93 to 0. The agreement to let this bill proceed may be a procedural maneuver to allow a legislative vehicle for a potential omnibus measure to move forward at the same time showing a gesture of goodwill prior to the omnibus negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he hopes to finish consideration of the MilCon/VA bill by Tuesday evening. The chairman of the MilCon/VA Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) offered a substitute amendment to reflect the new budget agreement funding levels. The substitute amendment recommends a total of $79.7B in discretionary funding, a more than $2.1B increase over the committee-reported bill.
Yesterday the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairs learned of their revised allocations, which were developed by the House and Senate Appropriations chairmen with input from the ranking members. While there is agreement on the budget caps for each subcommittee, one last issue could still force a government shutdown when the current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 11 – policy riders. Speaker Ryan has not ruled out including policy riders in an omnibus appropriations bill. And Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said that a policy rider on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) could surface in the omnibus spending bill. House and Senate Democrats as well as the White House would oppose the inclusion of these riders. Stay tuned!
FY16 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report
The House and Senate opted to forgo veto override votes for the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Instead, the House took up S 1356 and amended it to include an FY16 NDAA that had been adjusted to account for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The $5B adjustments impacted more than 100 separate programs including the Syrian train and equip program, the Air Force’s next generation strategic bomber, Army readiness, and the Counterterrorism Partnership Fund. The adjusted FY16 NDAA passed the House by a vote of 370 to 58 and now heads to the Senate for consideration. Despite the inclusion of restrictions on closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the President is likely to sign the measure.
S 1356 Bill Text:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=27E9F5EB-757A-4BF2-B807-333B6BD6A627
S 1356 Report Language:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=E0B05DFB-B970-4D0C-92EA-26FD566B7E3B
FY16 NDAA Adjustments List:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=61603558-B545-4B27-A3F2-D02E38B01F2F
Homeland Security Science & Technology Advisory Committee
The Department of Homeland Security appointed 28 new members to the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee (HSSTAC). The HSSTAC provides scientific and technical advice to the DHS Secretary and senior department leadership on matters related to the expansion of technological capabilities across the homeland security enterprise.
The HSSTAC members are selected from disciplines within the following fields of expertise: Organizational Strategy and Management; First Responders; Cybersecurity/Risk; Cross-Cutting Technical Expertise; and Chemical and Biological Defense. The 28 new HSSTAC members will join the six current members on the committee. All members serve two-year terms on the committee.
The 28 new members are:
Organization Strategy and Management
James R. Brigham, Jr., corporate director of simMachines, Inc.
Herbert Lee Buchanan, President/CEO of Arete Associates
James F. Decker, Principal and Co-Founder of Decker, Garman, Sullivan and Associates, LLC.
Michael J. Goldblatt, CEO of Aixxia, LLC
Annie McKee, founder of Teleos Leadership Institute
Brock C. Reeve, Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
John A. Sims, Executive Director of External Relations for Academic Affairs at Bentley University
David A. Whelan, Vice President of Engineering for Boeing Defense, Space and Security
Roy A. Wiggins, Dean of Business, Professor of Finance, and Director of the Bentley Microfinance Initiative at Bentley University
Christina C. Williams, Associate Provost for Administration and Finance at Brandeis University
First Responder
- Keith Bryant isan emergency medical technician and member of the
Oklahoma City Fire Department. He is the current President of the
International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Murray “Jay” Farr is the Deputy Chief of Police in the Arlington County,
Va. Police Department.
Gary W. Schenkel is Executive Director of the Chicago Office of Emergency
Management and Communications and oversees the Public Safety Consortium,
which brings together local, state, and federal partners to plan and
coordinate emergency response.
James Schwartz is the Chief of the Arlington County, Va. Fire Department.
Cybersecurity/Risk
Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google
Vincent W. S. Chan, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT
James A. Hendler, Director of the Institute for Data Exploration and Applications, and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web, and Cognitive Sciences at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Cross Cutting Technical Expertise
Philip E. Coyle, Senior Science Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
William P. Crowell, partner with Alsop Louie Partners
Daniel Dubno, developer of Keyhole
Yacov Y. Haimes, Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Systems and Information Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Founding Director of the Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems at the University of Virginia
Eric Haseltine, President of Haseltine Partners LLC
Karim R. Lakhani, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and Principal Investigator of the Crowd Innovation Lab and NASA Tournament Lab at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.
Mark T. Maybury, Chief Technology Officer of the MITRE Corp
Brian C. Toohey, Executive Vice President of DEKA Research and Development Corp
Theodore Lawrence Willke II, Senior Principal Engineer for Intel Labs
Chemical and Biological Defense
Kathie L. Olsen, Founder and Managing Director of ScienceWorks
Gerald W. Parker, Vice President for Public Health Preparedness and Response, and principal investigator for the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing.
Political Updates
Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary contest this week, citing a change to the party’s debate rules.
Next week’s Republican Presidential debate by Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal will have a few less familiar faces on stage at the 9 pm main event. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former New York Governor George Pataki, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore all failed to make the cut for the main stage and instead will debate at the 6 pm undercard debate. The eight candidates on the main stage are: Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) received a primary challenger this week when Iraq War veteran Jonathan McConnell announced that he would challenge the five-term Republican senator. McConnell founded Meridian.us, a global maritime security company. Shelby, who is 81, has more than $19M in his campaign account and confirmed earlier this year that he is running for re-election. Given how “red” the state is, whoever wins the March 1 primary will likely win the seat in November.
Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL) announced this week that he won’t seek re-election in 2016. Nugent cited a desire to spend more time with his family as a chief factor in his decision to retire next year. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), whose district became considerably more Democratic in the most recent round of redistricting, is considering a run to succeed Nugent, although Nugent has already endorsed his chief of staff, Justin Grabelle, to replace him
Ohio Governor John Kasich set the special election date for the seat vacated by former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for June 7. The primary election will be held on March 15, the same day as the state’s presidential primary. The winner would serve the remainder of the term, and a full-time replacement would be decided in the next general election. GOP candidates include state Rep. Tim Derickson, Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds, state Sen. Bill Beagle, and Troy teacher J.D. Winteregg.
The House and Senate released their FY16 calendars this week:
House:
http://www.majorityleader.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2016_ANNUAL_CALENDAR.pdf
Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/2016_schedule.htm
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) appointed Clifton Triplett as the new Senior Cyber and Information Technology Advisor. Triplett’s role will be to help upgrade OPM’s network infrastructure and cybersecurity, and he will report directly to Beth Cobert, OPM’s Acting Director. Triplett, a military veteran, comes to OPM with 30 years of cross-industry and IT organizational transformation experience. Before joining OPM, he was a managing partner at SteelPointe Partners, a global management consulting company.
Mark Day, the General Services Administration’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Integrated Technology Services office in the Federal Acquisition Service, retired from the federal government on Oct. 30. Kathleen Turco, the Chief Financial Officer for the Veterans Health Administration also announced her plans to retire as of Dec. 30. And Health and Human Services Chief Information Officer Frank Baitman told his staff this week that he is leaving as of Nov. 30.
FBI Director James Comey named Gregory D. Cox as the Assistant Director of the Critical Incident Response Group in Quantico, VA and Carlos Cases as the Assistant Director of International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington DC.
Christine Harada, the General Services Administration’s Associate Administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Policy and Acting Chief of Staff, is moving to the White House. Harada will become the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at the Council on Economic Quality (CEQ) on Nov. 16.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) portrait was quietly removed from the Speaker’s lobby this week. Last week, Hastert pleaded guilty in a hush-money scheme. Hastert’s portrait was replaced by a portrait of Frederick H. Gillett, a Massachusetts Republican who served as a speaker from 1919 to 1925.
Next Week
The House is in recess next week. The Senate will resume consideration of the FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill on Monday and will vote on the revised FY16 National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday. The Senate will also hold a confirmation vote on the nomination of Scott Allen to be U.S. Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Senate is not in session on Wednesday in observance of Veterans Day.