October 2, 2015
Both the House and Senate passed a continuing resolution funding the government through December 11 averting a potential shutdown of the federal government. The House also passed the conference report for the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1735), the Cross-Border Rail Security Act of 2015 (HR 2786), the Border Jobs for Veterans Act of 2015 (HR 2835), the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act (HR 3457), the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act (HR 3495), and the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act (S 2082). The Senate passed HR 3614, the Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2015 and HR 1624, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act. The Senate also passed by unanimous consent a bill to reauthorize the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (S 2078), a bill reducing an increase in the minimum wage for American Samoa (HR 2617), the Border Jobs for Veterans Act (HR 2835), and a bill to extend and expand the Medicaid emergency psychiatric demonstration project (S 599).
House Leadership Elections
Next Thursday (Oct. 8), House Republicans will elect their new leadership. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) may challenge the customary process by recommending candidates vacate their current leadership posts if they run for another office, and he may have the support of some younger members of Congress. Current GOP rules only state that vacancies trigger elections.
Speaker
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced this week that he was seeking the speaker’s gavel. McCarthy has two challengers for the leadership position. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), whose district may be eliminated by the 2016 election, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chaffetz hasn’t officially declared, but is rumored to be preparing to also launch a campaign for House speaker. This comes after Chaffetz called on McCarthy to apologize for his remarks this week that the Benghazi Committee investigation has damaged Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. McCarthy remains the overwhelming favorite to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
The new speaker will be elected through a floor vote in which a simple majority of 218 votes will be required to approve the new leader. That leaves McCarthy room to lose the support of only 29 Republican members. The Freedom Caucus prefers to vote as a bloc, but under the group’s rules, that can happen only if 80% of members agree on a leadership candidate. If the Freedom Caucus throws its weight behind Webster’s candidacy for speaker, McCarthy would have huge problems winning the gavel and it could throw the GOP Conference into turmoil. But if McCarthy can secure the backing of 4/5 of the group, the speakership would be his to lose. If neither candidate reaches that 80% threshold, every member of the conservative group becomes a free agent — and McCarthy will try to pick off individual lawmakers. He would be expected to corral a majority of the group in that scenario.
Majority Leader
Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Tom Price (R-GA) are running for Majority Leader if McCarthy is elected Speaker. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) took herself out of the running this week. House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) have both endorsed Price for Majority Leader. Price fought against raising defense spending in the Republican budget earlier this year. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has thrown her support behind Scalise.
Majority Whip
Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Dennis Ross (R-FL) are all likely candidates for Majority Whip if Rep. Scalise is elected Majority Leader or forced to vacate the position while running for Majority Leader.
FY16 Appropriations/Continuing Resolution (CR)
The House and Senate avoided a federal government shutdown by passing a FY16 continuing resolution (CR) this week. The House passed the CR by a vote of 277 to 151 after the Senate had cleared it by a vote of 78 to 20.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) defied House conservatives who wanted to use the CR to defund Planned Parenthood. All Democrats in the House voted for the CR, but they were joined by only 91 House Republicans. All nay votes in the Senate were from Republican members, including Republican Presidential candidates Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubia (R-FL) did not vote. The vote counts indicate the difficulties that lie ahead with passing a long-term omnibus spending measure by the December 11 deadline. President Obama has vowed to veto an omnibus that doesn’t replace sequestration.
The $1.017T in annualized spending CR funds the government through December 11 and includes $74.8B in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. In order to stay within the total spending limits set by the Budget Control Act, the 2016 CR contains an across-the-board reduction of 0.2108 percent. In the Senate Budget Committee’s latest “Budget Bulletin,” the committee states that while the CR stays under the BCA spending cap, nondefense spending exceeds its cap and defense spending falls below its cap. So while for the duration of the CR, the nondefense overage will not result in sequestration, an across-the-board reduction would occur if the CR were extended past the end of this session of Congress.
After passing the CR, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the $77.6B FY16 Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. The vote failed 50 to 44 (60 is needed for cloture). Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the motion to invoke cloture on the spending measure.
Major Legislative Issues for Remainder of 2015
What impact will the changes in leadership have on the outstanding legislative issues for 2015, including the prospects for a budget deal to raise the Budget Control Act spending caps as well as the debt ceiling? House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) retirement means that October could either be very tumultuous or very productive. The Speaker, no longer handcuffed by the conservatives in his party, could “clear the decks” for his successor before retiring. He said that he doesn’t intend to “sit around and do nothing for the next 30 days.”
FY16 Appropriations Bills/Omnibus
Boehner and McConnell have begun talks over a budget deal and will spend the next several weeks debating the stringent, across-the-board spending caps imposed in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Failure to reach agreement on lifting these caps will have an impact on the FY16 appropriations negotiations and could mean a federal government shutdown after December 11. The best prospects for an agreement and passage of an omnibus spending bill are with the current Speaker, as any long-term budget deal will be much more difficult for the new leadership team to bargain. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said House Democrats want to raise the spending caps by $74B, split evenly between defense and nondefense spending.
Debt Ceiling
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to Congress this week in which he said that the US will hit its borrowing limit by November 5. This deadline is sooner than originally estimated as “Tax receipts were lower than we previously projected, and the trust fund investments were higher than projected- resulting in a net decrease of resources available to the United States government.” This new deadline gives Congress just a month to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default. The debt limit increase could be tied to budget negotiations or a highway reauthorization measure. Speaker Boehner will likely have to negotiate this issue before he retires. He will face opposition from his own party for a clean debt limit hike, so he may have to rely on some Democrat votes by crafting a debt ceiling increase acceptable to both parties.
EXIM Bank
The Export-Import Bank charter expired on June 30. House Republicans are looking to revive the bank by forcing a House vote. They have secured enough Republican support to bring an extension of the agency’s charter to the House floor later this month. More than 30 Republicans have signed on to a discharge petition, which would force a vote on the reauthorization. A number of Democrats are expected to sign the petition.
Surface Transportation Reauthorization
The current highway bill authorization expires on October 29. The Senate passed a long-term (5 year) reauthorization before the August recess that included an EXIM Bank reauthorization provision. The House is working on a 6-year reauthorization that they hope to get out of committee in early October, but those plans may be falling apart as House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) told House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) not to count on international tax revenue for their offset. Ryan and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) remain at odds on the appropriate level of highway spending.
Tax Extenders
A number of tax provisions that expired at the end of 2014 will be unavailable to taxpayers when they file their 2015 taxes if they are not retroactively extended before the end of December. The tax provisions include credits for research and development, deductions for teachers’ out of pocket expenses, and credits that assist the US wind energy industry. In August, the Senate Finance Committee reported out S 1946, a bill that extends these tax provisions through 2016, and the House has passed several bills making some of the tax provisions permanent.
FY16 National Defense Authorization Act
The House and Senate Armed Services Committee reached agreement on a conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. The House passed the measure by a vote of 270 to 156, with mostly Democratic opposition to the bill. The vote was 20 ayes short of the votes needed to override President Obama’s threatened veto. The President and Democrats objected to the authorization of $38B in OCO funding that is being used to skirt the budget caps for defense spending. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) filed for cloture on the conference report this week, lining up a cloture vote for Tuesday. Sixty votes are needed to move forward and it is unclear at this time how Senate Democrats will vote on the procedural motion and final passage.
FY16 NDAA Conference Report:
http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20150928/CRPT-114hrpt270.pdf
FY16 NDAA Conference Report Summary:
https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/114/PDF/114-CRHR1735-SxS.pdf
House Homeland Security Committee Markup
The House Homeland Security Committee met this week and marked up several bills including one (HR 3572) that would make structural changes to the Department of Homeland Security. The bill, the DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement Act of 2015, would amend the 2002 law that created DHS to update and streamline the department and encourage better policy, planning, management, and performance. The other bills marked up in the committee were:
- HR 3102, the Airport Access Control Security Improvement Act of 2015
- HR 3144, the Partners for Aviation Security Act
- HR 3350, the Know the CBRN Terrorism Threats to Transportation Act
- HR 3361, the DHS Insider Threat and Mitigation Act
- HR 3490, the Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act
- HR 3493, the Securing the Cities Act of 2015
- HR 3503, the DHS Support to Fusion Centers Act of 2015
- HR 3505, the DHS Clearance Management and Administration Act
- HR 3510, the DHS Cybersecurity Strategy Act of 2015
- HR 3572, the DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement Act
- HR 3578, the DHS Science and Technology Reform and Improvements Act of 2015
- HR 3583, the Promoting Resilience and Efficiency in Preparing for Attacks and Responding to Emergencies Act
- HR 3584, the TSA Reform and Improvement Act of 2015
- HR 3586, the Border and Maritime Coordination Improvement Act
- HR 3598, the Fusion Center Enhancement Act of 2015
Political Updates
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is stepping down in December and will rejoin his family in Chicago. John King, currently the Acting Deputy Secretary, will take over for Duncan in an acting capacity but will not be formally nominated for the position. After Duncan’s resignation, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be the only original member of the Obama Cabinet still serving.
CNN announced its debate criteria for its Democratic candidates debate in Las Vegas on October 13 at 9 pm. All five declared candidates – Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chaffee – have been invited to participate in the debate. Vice President Joe Biden could participate in the debate if he declares as the qualifications for participation are achieving an average of 1% in three polls recognized by CNN released between August 1 and October 10. But sources say Biden is unlikely to participate. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is moderating the debate, while CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN en Español Anchor Juan Carlos and CNN anchor Don Lemon will present questions to the candidates.
The next Republican candidates debate hosted by CNBC on October 28 will feature an undercard stage at 6 PM before the main event at 8 PM for those candidates polling at a 1% average in the five weeks before the debate. The main event will include candidates polling at a 3% or above average (and anything 2.5% and above will be rounded up to 3%). The polls being used for the averages are from NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and Bloomberg released between Sept. 17 and Oct. 21. The debate will be moderated by CNBC anchors John Harwood, Carl Quintanilla, and Becky Quick. The most recent polling averages from the recognized polls since Sept. 17 show that Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and former Gov. Jim Gilmore have not cleared a 1 percent average. According to the most recent polling averages, the main debate stage would feature Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul.
Ari Schwartz, Senior Director for Cybersecurity on the United States National Security Council Staff at the White House, stepped down from his position on Wednesday. Schwartz did not indicate where he might work next.
Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) announced Tuesday that he’s retiring at the end of 2016. Whitfield was considered a possible contender for replacing House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) who is term-limited by GOP rules. The other possible successors are Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR) and John Shimkus (R-IL).
Evelyn Farkas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, is leaving her post at the end of next month after five years with the Defense Department.
NASA named Renee Wynn as its new Chief Information Officer after serving for three months as the agency’s Deputy CIO. Wynn replaces Larry Sweet who served as CIO for about two years. Wynn joined NASA in July after leaving her post as the Acting Assistant Administrator in the Office of Environmental Information at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Charles Perkins has been assigned as the Principal Deputy Director for Emerging Capability and Prototyping in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Department of Defense. Dr. Perkins previously served as the Deputy Director of Special Projects.
Martha Dorris, GSA’s director of the Office of Strategic Programs within the Office of Integrated Technology Services, plans to leave government at the end of October.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Anthony Rock was appointed to the rank of lieutenant general and assigned as the Inspector General of the Air Force. Rock is currently serving as Chief in the Office of the Defense Representative-Pakistan at the US Central Command in Pakistan.
Next Week
The House will take up HR3192, the Homebuyers Assistance House; HR 538, the Native American Energy Act; and HR 702, a bill to adapt to changing crude oil market conditions. The Senate will vote on the conference report to the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1735).