Congress Prepares Next Short-Term CR

Posted on March 12, 2011October 17, 2012

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee revealed the details of the next short-term continuing resolution (CR), which would keep the federal government funded through April 8th. The current CR expires on March 18th. The new spending measure would cut another $6 billion below current levels. The package would fulfill the Republican leadership’s commitment to cut $2 billion per week with each short-term extension for FY11.

The new proposed CR would cut approximately $3.5 billion by either terminating or reducing 25 federal programs. The measure also seeks $2.6 billion in “earmark terminations.” Included in the earmark terminations are cuts of $123 million from research and education activities and $12 million from extension programs of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at the USDA, which may mean that those agencies would have less money to offer through competitive grants.

This short-term measure would also reduce, among other “earmarks”, the Research Facilities Construction account at the NIST by $47 million and the Operations, Research and Facilities account at NOAA by $99 million.

Funding levels for student aid programs and the largest scientific research agencies are not altered by this CR.

Reports indicate that both leaders of the House and Senate have preliminarily signed off on this latest short-term CR. Passage is expected next week, prior to expiration of the current CR next Friday evening, March 18th.

Senate Votes Down Two FY11 Budget Proposals

Posted on March 9, 2011October 17, 2012

The Senate today rejected alternative Republican and Democratic approaches to the long-term FY11 spending bill. The House-passed HR 1, which would cut $57.5 billion from current FY11 funding, failed on a vote of 44-56; the Senate Democratic leadership plan, which would cut $4.7 billion from current funding, failed on a vote of 42-58. Since neither proposal came close to receiving the 60 Senate votes needed to pass, the votes made clear that neither party holds a real advantage at the moment, and that serious negotiations will need to take place before the issue is resolved. National Journal reports that Senate Democrats also hope to broaden the debate to include other parts of the budget, such as farm price supports and offshore oil subsidies.

Meanwhile, with little chance that a budget agreement will be reached by the time the current continuing resolution (CR) expires on March 18, House appropriators are developing a new short-term FY11 CR. House Republicans say that another short-term CR will, like the current one, include a $2-billion cut in spending for each additional week of the CR.

Washington Senators Murray and Cantwell voted against HR 1 and for the Democratic alternative.

Senate Passes Patent Overhaul Bill

Posted on March 9, 2011June 8, 2015

By a vote of 95-5, the Senate approved S. 23, a measure aimed at updating the nation’s patent system for the first time in decades. Supporters of the bill believe it will foster innovation and bolster US economic growth and competitiveness around the world. The debate now moves to the House where it faces an uncertain future.

The Senate-approved bill would change procedures for issuing patents and for challenging their validity once they are issued, as well as codify a method for calculating damage awards in patent lawsuits. It also would implement a system to grant patent awards to inventors who are “first to file” rather than based on the current criterion of “first to invent” — a change proponents argue will simplify the patent process and reduce the number of challenges.

The House may take issue with the Senate bill’s language to shift to a “first to file” system and to allow the patent office to keep the revenue it generates in fees. Some House conservatives have voiced skepticism about both proposals.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the progress of this measure as it moves through the House.

FY11 Debate Continues…

Posted on March 7, 2011October 17, 2012

After approving another continuing resolution (CR) last week to run through March 18^th, Congress must now get serious about how to fund the remaining six months of FY11, which has been operating roughly at FY10 levels since the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2010. The Republican controlled House and the Democratic controlled Senate must find some middle ground – and quickly – if they want to avoid new talks about a federal government shutdown. And while both parties have agreed to make cuts to reduce federal spending, they are still some $51 billion apart in the amount of cuts that they are proposing for FY11.

Two weeks ago, the House passed their FY11 measure that would cut $61.5 billion from the FY10 levels. Conversely, the Senate has advanced a bill to only cut $6.5 billion from FY10 levels. This is in addition to the $4 billion in cuts that were included in the CR that was signed by the President last week (and runs through March 18^th). This leaves a difference of some $51 billion between the two. The Senate leadership will allow votes on both measures, which will likely fail, to demonstrate that the Congress as a whole needs to come toward the middle if they are to get an FY11 budget approved.

Most Congressional analysts and insiders have expressed doubts that an agreement can be negotiated by the time the current CR runs out, so further short-term CR extensions will be needed. Republicans say these extensions would come with further spending cuts. It’s also possible that further Senate test votes, like those occurring this week, will be needed to further persuade lawmakers to compromise as Democrats and Republicans try to narrow their differences.

The measure proposed by the Senate leadership would include a Defense spending bill for the current fiscal year as Pentagon officials have urged, but at a level $2 billion below that proposed by House Republicans. Among other differences, Democrats would restore $5.5 billion in cuts that Republicans proposed for the State Department and foreign aid programs; provide a slight increase for Homeland Security rather than a cut; restore $25 billion in GOP-proposed cuts for education, health and job-training programs in the Labor-HHS-Education bill; and add back almost $12 billion for programs in the Transportation-HUD bill, particularly for housing.

Meanwhile, a wide range of other budget-related action will be occurring in Congress this week. House and Senate committees will continue dozens of hearings on budget and spending plans for FY12, including those by the House and Senate Budget panels as they prepare to assemble an annual budget resolution in coming weeks.

On Tuesday, the Senate Budget Committee holds a hearing on the findings and recommendations of President Obama’s fiscal commission, receiving testimony from the commission’s two co-chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. The pair later that day will be launching “The Moment of Truth Project,” which will provide a platform for them to continue advancing debate on the need to change federal spending and tax policies in order to return the nation to a sustainable fiscal path.

Late last week, House Leadership announced that they will increasingly be considering bills to cut mandatory spending, with the House scheduled to take up two such bills this week. Those bills, which Republicans say would save taxpayers $9 billion, would terminate two of four foreclosure assistance programs that were established to help struggling homeowners following the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

And today the Senate votes on a cloture motion to end debate on patent system overhaul legislation.

Congress Works to Finalize FY11 Budget

Posted on February 7, 2011October 17, 2012

The Republican effort to roll back non-security discretionary spending to FY08 levels officially gets started this week with the return of House lawmakers from their one-week recess. On Tuesday, House Republicans will set their new, enforceable spending limits for FY11, and later in the week unveil their package to cut spending for the remainder of the year. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced last week that the new discretionary spending cap will represent a $32 billion reduction from the annualized spending level under the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) currently funding federal government. This proposed cap assumes a $41 billion reduction in non-security spending (i.e., programs other than defense, homeland security, and veterans), while providing a nominal increase for security spending. The new cap is intended to reduce non-security spending to FY08 levels for the final seven months of the current fiscal year (FY11). The current CR expires March 4^th.

Also this week, the House Appropriations Committee plan to adopt spending allocations for each of the 12 individual funding bills for FY11, which determine the level of cuts each domestic spending bill will incur. GOP appropriators have been working for weeks to identify specific program cuts for each bill. We expect to see a draft of the CR extension that will reflect those spending cuts, in preparation for House floor action on the measure next week. No committee markup of the legislation is expected, and GOP leaders haven’t yet announced whether a full Defense spending will be considered. Analysis of the proposed spending caps show that while on average non-security spending for the remainder of the fiscal year would be cut by more than 15 percent, discretionary spending for some bills would be cut much more deeply. Transportation-HUD programs, for instance, face a 26 percent cut, with Agriculture to be cut 24 percent, and Energy-Water cut 20 percent.

The Office of Federal Relations continues to advocate for maintaining federal funding at the FY10 level, with some targeted investments in research. While the House is likely to agree to drastic cuts for FY11, the Senate – controlled by the Democrats – will not agree to such severe cuts. It is not yet clear where we will end up but it looks like we may see the remainder of FY11 funded at levels somewhere between FY09 and FY10. Stay tuned…