State of the Union Offers Encouraging News for Research

Posted on January 26, 2011October 17, 2012

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama urged Congress to invest in critical priorities, reorganize the government, and begin addressing growing debt and deficits in order to ensure US success in the future. Obama proposed increased spending on education, infrastructure, and research and technology — particularly clean energy technology — that the President said would both create jobs and enhance US competitiveness in the world.

“We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world,” he said. “We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit, and reform our government. That’s how our people will prosper. That’s how we’ll win the future.”

The promise of technology heavily underpinned the President’s address, as he emphasized the importance of clean tech, broadband, and science education in achieving his goal. He made the case for continued investment in research funding, and a renewed commitment to immigration reform that’s designed to keep talented foreign workers in the country.

While this all sounds encouraging for the research and higher education communities, the President proposes to pay for those investments by cutting other domestic programs. He is proposing a five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, which he said would save more than $400 billion over 10 years and bring discretionary spending to the lowest level as a share of the economy since the Eisenhower administration. It remains to be seen whether the President can actually motivate Congress into acting on his proposals, some of which appeared in Obama’s prior State of the Union addresses. It was in 2010 that the president sounded similar notes on innovation, taxes and trade, but those reforms often lagged in a Congress more focused on other big-ticket items like healthcare.

One surprise in the President’s address was his threat to veto any legislation that includes earmarks, essentially closing the door on any earmarks for FY12. Democrats in the Senate denounced the President’s call as a power grab that will have little-to-no impact on the federal budget deficit.

But the reality is that Democrats face a political climate that makes it virtually impossible to get any earmarks through this Congress if Obama and Republicans in congress maintain their opposition. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has already said that no appropriations bills with earmarks will pass the House, and Senate Republicans have also embraced a moratorium on the pet projects. That means House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and the President would have to cave in if any earmarks are to become law this year.

In other budget news, the House Republicans on Tuesday moved forward in their push to sharply reduce spending and draw contrasts with President Obama’s budget priorities. They adopted a resolution calling for non-security discretionary spending to be cut to FY08 levels or less for the last seven months of FY11. House Republican leaders also announced that they are planning to bring a government funding measure to the floor the same week the president is expected to release his budget (week of February 14^th). During that same week, the House will also consider another stopgap spending measure to fund the government for the remainder of FY11. The current stopgap funding expires March 4th.

The Office of Federal Relations is closely monitoring all of these events and will provide additional information on this site as it becomes available. In the meantime, we are anticipating major programmatic cuts in the President’s FY12 Budget and are currently developing materials to defend those federal programs that the UW works with the most.

Federal Spending Cuts Planned

Posted on January 19, 2011October 17, 2012

House Republicans are still considering options for how best to keep their campaign promise to cut federal spending and the overall size of government. Today they will consider a resolution that would require the House Budget Committee Chairman to set FY11 non-security discretionary spending limits at FY08 levels. The full House expects to vote on the measure early next week. If approved, which is likely, the vote would put the chamber on record in support of cutting non-security discretionary spending before President Obama gives his State of the Union Address to Congress next Tuesday.

Once the House sets a new FY11 discretionary spending cap, House GOP appropriators will start assembling an extension of the stopgap resolution that is now funding the government, including cuts to non-security domestic spending. The current CR, which runs through March 4th, generally continues funding at FY10 levels. Since the Senate’s Democratic majority is unlikely to go along with the House proposals, the two chambers and the President will eventually need to strike an agreement on funding the government for the remainder of the year.

The House Republican leadership also needs to turn their attention to the upcoming vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and development of an FY12 budget resolution. While lowering non-security discretionary spending to FY08 levels would be a major victory for Republicans, it is clear that they intend to push for even deeper cuts for FY12. The House Majority Leader has stated that Republicans won’t agree to increase the nation’s debt ceiling without strong assurances of cuts in federal spending. The House Republicans will almost certainly use the debt ceiling vote as a bargaining chip to lock in an agreement with Democrats and the President on spending cuts for FY12 and beyond.

Meanwhile, the House unanimously passed the second of its weekly GOP bills to cut spending yesterday. The amended bill (HR 292) eliminates the requirement that the Government Printing Office (GPO) print hard copies of introduced legislation for use by members of the House and Senate. Instead, they would only be published in electronic form, saving a significant portion of the $7 million the GPO is expected to spend on congressional printing this year.

Tucson Tragedy Puts Legislative Schedule on Hold

Posted on January 10, 2011October 17, 2012

The shooting over the weekend of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 others has prompted House leaders to cancel pending action on legislation this week, including their plans to vote on repealing health care reform. Instead, the House will be in session for two days this week but the only business will occur Wednesday when the chamber will consider resolutions honoring the victims of the shooting in Tucson. No recorded votes are expected this week.

Also postponed is the second of the House Republican’s promised weekly votes to cut federal spending. The measure they intended to bring up this week calls for the elimination of a requirement that the Government Printing Office (GPO) print hard copies of all bills and resolutions introduced in Congress, thus saving on printing costs and requiring users to view documents on-line.

The short work week will culminate with an already planned House Republican annual issues retreat on Thursday and Friday. At their retreat, Republicans will be discussing how they plan to achieve their many goals in this Congress, including cutting federal spending and overturning or slowing Obama’s health care reforms. The Senate, meanwhile, last week began a two-week recess and won’t return until the week of January 24^th.

Fiscal Issues Dominate First Days in Congress

Posted on January 7, 2011October 17, 2012

The 112th Congress convened Wednesday amid ceremonial pomp in the House with the election of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Their first order of business was to adopt a rules package for the 112th Congress that is designed to advance Republican priorities to control federal spending, cut the deficit, and makes the chamber more accountable to the public.

On Thursday, the House adopted a resolution that would make 5 percent reductions the next two years to the budgets for House offices, including those of members, leaders, and committees. Republicans estimate that the cuts will save more than $35 million in the first year alone and see the measure as the first of many steps to fulfill their promise to cut federal spending. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that in addition to cutting current-year spending, further cuts to discretionary spending would be made for FY12. The plan in coming months is to cut FY11 non-security funding down to 2008 levels, which would now amount to a cut of about $60 billion given that domestic agencies will have been funded at 2010 levels for five months of the fiscal year by the time the existing CR expires March 4th.

Also on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called on Congress to raise the existing $14.29 trillion debt limit soon, as he estimates the current ceiling will be reached sometime between March 31 and May 16 and that the government now is only $335 billion away from that limit. Raising the debt limit simply allows the government to fund obligations established by both Republican and Democratic Congresses and wouldn’t alter or increase the nation’s obligations. Geithner also emphasized that a default is very different from a temporary shutdown of the government caused by the failure to enact appropriations bills, such as occurred in late 1995 and early 1996. Even if Congress were to immediately cut spending to 2008 levels as suggested by Republicans, it would only delay the need to increase the debt limit by no more than two weeks. Republicans in both chambers say they will agree to raise the debt limit only if the White House agrees to major cuts in federal spending. Although some rank-and-file Republicans have said they won’t agree to any increase and see it as a way of prompting a government shutdown, GOP leaders have maintained that an increase will have to occur and have eschewed any talk of government shutdowns.

Several measures were introduced in the House yesterday that would reduce federal agency budgets by 5, 10, or 15 percent. These measures will likely act as legislative vehicles for the ongoing debate about how to reduce federal spending and likely will come into play as Congress addresses the issues of increasing the debt limit. The Republican leadership in the House will certainly use these or similar measures as bargaining chips with the White House to force spending cuts in exchange for their support on raising the debt limit.

The House and Senate calendars diverge over the next few weeks. The House starts with general organizing committee meetings over the next two weeks and has scheduled a break for the week of January 31^st. The Senate, though technically in session, does not return for regular business until January 24^th and does not have another scheduled break until the Presidents Day recess starting February 21^st.

112th Congress Convenes Today

Posted on January 5, 2011October 17, 2012

The 112th Congress convenes today, reinstating an era of divided government with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats in control of the Senate and White House. Republicans will have a 242-193 majority in the House, while Senate Democrats and their two independent allies will hold a majority of 53 seats, compared with 47 for Republicans. Both the House and Senate will open with swearing in their new members and determining procedural rules for the year. The Senate will adjourn at the end of the week for a two-week recess to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, while the House is expected to be in session for a portion of next week when they plan to take a mostly symbolic vote to repeal last year’s health reform law.

House Republican leadership will use the three weeks before President Obama’s State of the Union address to vote to repeal the health care overhaul law and cut spending. Following the vote next week to repeal the health care law, the House Republicans will act quickly to fulfill their pledge to cut spending to 2008 levels as they attempt to complete the FY11 appropriations process before the current continuing resolution expires on March 4^th.

Also this week, the House will take the first of what will become a weekly ritual in the chamber under the new majority: voting on a bill to cut federal spending. This week’s vote will be on a measure to cut the House’s own funding by 5 percent, which Republicans estimate will save more than $35 million in the first year. Of the $35 million in savings, $26 million would come from reducing members’ office budgets, $8 million would come from House committees, and $1 million would come from Republican and Democratic leadership offices. Future weekly spending cut proposals will be selected through the Republicans’ “YouCut” Initiative, which Republicans initiated last year and allows the public to vote online on which federal spending program they would like to see cut. That initiative will continue as is has in the past, with the proposed spending cut that received the most votes each week being brought directly to the House floor for consideration.

The weekly YouCut votes will be on a separate track from rescission bills reported by the Appropriations Committee and other efforts to roll back domestic discretionary spending to 2008 levels. Those efforts are expected to pick up speed in February after Republicans set a new discretionary spending cap for FY11, and as the March 4th expiration of the current CR funding that the entire government approaches. The Senate Democrats will likely not agree to the House imposed spending levels so the outlook for the FY11 appropriations process is uncertain. There is wide speculation that absent an agreement between the two bodies, a year-long CR will be enacted to fund federal government at (or close to) FY10 levels.

Today is just the beginning of a long two-year session of Congress. I look forward to bringing you information and insights on this blog and through our periodic Federal Updates along the way!