Skip to content
News and updates

Author: Sarah Castro

Reviewed 9/22

Price Confirmation for HHS Slips to Februrary

Posted on

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced that the actually confirmation vote for Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who is the Trump nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), will not occur until mid-February.

The HELP Committee  that will hear from Price on January 18, and the Senate Finance Committee is expected to hear from Rep. Price soon after, but the date has not yet been set. The Senate  Finance Committee has primary responsibility for the HHS nomination, since it has jurisdiction over taxes and entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

A mid to late February nomination means that Price and HHS could not present the Trump Administration plan to repeal-and-replace Obamacare until the beginning of March, at the earliest.

Senate Passes Budget with ACA Repeal Instructions

Posted on

Early Thursday morning, Senators voted 51-48 to adopt the FY2017 budget resolution, with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) casting the only Republican vote against it. With just 51 votes, the Senate moves forward with plans to repeal the ACA while avoiding a filibuster from Senate Democrats. Ultimately, the Senate considered 19 amendments before the final vote — and stymied each one, mostly through procedural votes.

The key amendment of the vote-a-rama was an amendment offered by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who was joined by other moderate GOP Senators, would delay an initial deadline to write legislation to repeal the 2010 health care law,. The amendment was ultimately withdrawn without a vote.

The Corker Amendment would have pushed back the Jan. 27 deadline for four House and Senate committees to write legislation to repeal the health care law, the sole purpose of the budget resolution under consideration. A vote on the amendment would have been a key indicator of where Senators stood on a growing debate among Republicans about how quickly Congress should repeal the law, especially without a clear replacement ready to go.

The FY 2017 budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions with the purpose of repealing the health care law, which would occur through separate legislation.

 

Vote-a-rama

Posted on

It’s budget week on the Senate side (as well as confirmation week). The Senate is expected to start their all nighter on Wednesday. The Senate Democrats have vowed to take up all the debate time allotted (and more).

The bare-bones budget resolution, S.Con.Res. 3, released last week includes instructions to relevant committees to draft legislation aimed at repealing the health care law through reconciliation, a process that sidesteps the threat of Democratic obstruction or filibuster in the Senate. Getting the budget measure passed requires allowing Democratic Senators an almost endless opportunity to offer amendments aimed at expressing their opposition to repeal.

What the Senate will tackle this week is unique, since most measures can be filibustered. The 1974 Congressional Budget Act inoculates the consideration of any budget resolution from a filibuster and limits debate to 50 hours total. Once the time is up, everything must be voted upon.

What makes a budget resolution different is the clock. Once cloture is invoked on a customary bill, all motions, amendments, and passage must conclude by the end of debate time, which is 30 hours. Already, a budget bill receives 20 additional hours of debate.  Furthering the curiousness of the Senate budget process, however, is that any amendment that is offered must be disposed of before adoption of the resolution.

That means, regardless of the fact that the allotted debate time may expire Wednesday, any Senator may call up additional amendments and get a roll call vote even after debate time has expired. This is when things get fun. Senators may (and do) continue to seek votes on amendments after time has expired making the session can drag on and on. (No joke, there are cots for Senators to sleep on for the all nigher.) While Senators do not receive any additional debate time, past precedent has allowed a minute or two for Senators to explain their amendments before the vote. This barrage of a series of votes is what is known as “vote-a-rama”. 

Once a vote-a-rama stretches late into the next day, the minority party will often relent and allow a final vote once they have had enough opportunities to get Senators on record usually defeating amendments containing popular priorities, used primarily for messaging purposes.

The House is expected to fast track the legislation after the measure passes the Senate.

The measure also comes as a growing number of Republicans say that any repeal legislation should await a replacement plan, which might be difficult given the Budget resolution asks the various committees to produce a plan by January 27th. 

Meanwhile, the Senate has a busy week with a number of confirmation hearings both this week and in the coming weeks.

Nomination Schedule

Posted on

Politico has an excellent overview of the coming nominees for the incoming Administration’s cabinet positions.

Week of Jan. 9

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
Nominee: Ben Carson
Background: Retired neurosurgeon, former GOP primary rival
Committee: Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Confirmation Hearings: Sen. Mike Crapo is planning to hold a hearing next week
Recent Politico Coverage:

—

Tuesday, Jan. 10

Attorney General
Nominee: Sen. Jeff Sessions
Background: Alabama Republican Congressman
Committee: Senate Judiciary
Confirmation Hearings: Jan. 10 and 11. More here.
Recent Politico Coverage:

—

Wednesday, Jan. 11

Secretary of Education
Nominee: Betsy DeVos
Background: Billionaire, philanthropist, Republican megadonor
Committee: Senate HELP
Confirmation hearings: Jan. 11 at 10 a.m.  More here.
Recent Politico Coverage:

 

Secretary of Transportation 
Nominee: Elaine Chao
Background: Former Labor Secretary under the George W. Bush administration, deputy secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush, member of Trump’s Asian Pacific American Advisory Council for the campaign, married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Committee: Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Confirmation Hearings: Jan. 11 10:15 a.m. More here.
Recent Politico Coverage:

 

Secretary of Homeland Security
Nominee: John Kelly
Background: Retired Marine general, former U.S. Southern Command chief
Committee: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Confirmation hearings: Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. More here.
Recent Politico Coverage:

 

Secretary of State
Nominee: Rex Tillerson
Background: CEO of Exxon Mobil
Committee: Senate Foreign Relations
Confirmation Hearings: Jan. 11
Recent Politico Coverage:

—

Thursday, Jan. 12

Secretary of Commerce 
Nominee: Wilbur Ross
Background: Billionaire private-equity investor, founder of the private equity firm WL Ross & Co.
Committee: Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Confirmation Hearings: Jan. 12 at 10:00 a.m. More here.
Recent Politico Coverage:

—

Week of Jan. 16 and beyond

Secretary of Labor
Nominee: Andy Puzder
Background: CEO of CKE Restaurants, which include the Carl’s Jr. fast food chain
Committee: Senate HELP
Confirmation Hearings: The week of Jan. 16
Recent Politico Coverage:

Secretary of Health and Human Services
Nominee: Rep. Tom Price
Background: Georgia Republican Congressman, House Budget Chairman
Committee: Senate Finance
Confirmation Hearings: TBD, the HELP Committee is tentatively set to hold a confirmation hearing on Jan. 18.
Recent Politico Coverage:

Secretary of Treasury 
Nominee: Steven Mnuchin
Background: Former Goldman Sachs executive, Trump’s national finance chair for the campaign
Committee: Senate Finance
Confirmation Hearings: TBD
Recent Politico Coverage:

Secretary of Defense
Nominee: James Mattis
Background: Retired U.S. Marine Corps general
Committee: Senate Armed Services
Confirmation Hearings: TBD
Recent Politico Coverage:

Secretary of Interior
Nominee: Rep. Ryan Zinke
Background: Montana Republican Congressman, former U.S. Navy SEAL commander
Committee: Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Confirmation hearings: TBD

Secretary of Energy
Nominee: Rick Perry
Background: Former governor of Texas
Committee: Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Confirmation hearing: TBD
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Nominee: Scott Pruitt
Background: Oklahoma Attorney General
Committee: Senate Environment and Public Works
Confirmation Hearings: TBD

 

Ambassador to the United Nations
Nominee: Nikki Haley
Background: Governor of South Carolina
Committee: Senate Foreign Relations
Confirmation hearings: TBD

 

Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Nominee: Rep. Mick Mulvaney
Background: South Carolina Republican Congressman
Committee: Senate Budget and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Confirmation hearings: TBD

 

U.S. Trade Representative
Nominee: Robert Lighthizer
Background: Trade attorney, former deputy USTR under President Ronald Reagan
Committee: Senate Finance
Confirmation hearing: TBD

What We’re Reading This Week, January 2 – 6

Posted on

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Survivors – Trump and Congressional Republicans have made it clear that a top priority if rolling back Obama Administration regulations, but there’s a significant amount of work that the incoming Administration cannot or will not want to roll back. Read more in Vox.

Don’t Give Up, Give Out – Debates over climate change and genome editing present the need for researchers to venture beyond their comfort zones to engage with the political establishment, and they should keep doing it. Read more in Nature. 

Liberal Cities – Republican state legislatures are planning so-called preemption laws, which prevent cities and counties from passing new measures governing everything from taxes to environmental regulations and social issues. Read more in The Hill.

Staircase at the Russell Building (AOC)
Staircase at the Russell Building (AOC)

150 Banks – The debts of President-elect Donald Trump and his businesses are scattered across Wall Street banks, mutual funds and other financial institutions, broadening the tangle of interests that pose potential conflicts for the incoming president’s administration. Trump businesses’ debts are held by more than 150 institutions, which was repackaged into bonds—a process known as securitization, which has been used for more than $1 billion of debt connected to Mr. Trump’s companies. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

Congressional Review Act – Regulatory reform is the talk of the Hill, and the upshot seems to be that at least a few of President Obama’s environmental regulations could be dismantled quickly by the Republican Congress, with President-elect Donald Trump’s approval. How so? The Congressional Review Act, enacted in 1996, allows Congress 60 legislative days, starting from the date the rule is submitted to Congress and published in the Federal Register, to overturn new federal regulations by submitting something called a “joint resolution of disapproval.” Read more in WaPo. 

Tweet Tweet – Trump’s twitter feed is becoming an off-the-cuff sword for the incoming Administration’s agenda. It’s totally unpredictable and completely throwing Washington. Read more in Politico.

Russian Divide – The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on Russian hacking, which serviced to draw a divide between Hill Republicans and the President-elect. Read more in WaPo. 

Ethical Snafu – House Republican’s push to neuter the Office of Congressional Ethics on the first day of a new Congress turned into a major public relations fiasco after the press, the public and president-elect himself came out against the move Tuesday. Read more in Politico.

Spot You – President-elect Trump has indicated that he is planning on asking Congress for money to build a wall along the border with Mexico, but that Mexico will reimburse the US. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

Strutter Unrest – Texas State University dance team to perform at Trump’s inauguration, causing unrest on campus. Read more in The Houston Chronicle.