Busy Week for Appropriators

Posted on April 18, 2016

House and Senate Appropriations committees show no signs of slowing down as both committees announced their intended schedules for the week. The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced subcommittee and full committee markup of FY 2017 Commerce, Science and Justice Appropriations bill, which funds federal research agencies including the National Science Foundation and NASA. Also hearings have been announced for the Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee will hold a hearing on EPA, and Defense Subcommittee hearing on innovation and research.

The House Appropriations Committee has announced full committee markups of the FY 2017 Agriculture and Energy & Water bills, which went through subcommittee markup last week, as well as discretionary allocations.

Meanwhile, there is no clarity in the House as to when a FY 2017 Budget maybe expected, despite the statutory deadline being last Friday.

Appropriators Move Forward

Posted on April 15, 2016

Appropriators from both chambers of Congress advanced several of the annual spending bills needed to finance government agencies for the fiscal year that begins the first of October, but plenty of roadblocks could derail the process at any time. That includes the fact that Republican House leaders say they’re not giving up on getting a budget resolution adopted, even with the statutory deadline fast approaching on Friday and their party’s conservative bloc showing no signs of yielding to the higher levels of the last budget agreement. The House is expected to give itself an extension on the budget deadline, since no agreement has been reached.

The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote their Military Construction-VA bill, while two of its subcommittees advanced the Agriculture and Energy & Water bills. Similarly, the Senate, which normally waits on House-passed bills, is acting quickly on its own versions of FY 2017 measures. Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its own versions of the Military Construction-VA and Energy & Water bills, which were approved by its subcommittees Wednesday. The Senate is expected to consider its FY 2017 Energy-Water bill on the floor next week.

What We’re Reading This Week, April 11-15

Posted on April 14, 2016

Happy Tax Week! Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations Team has been enjoying this week.

Financial Literacy – Americans are woefully uniformed about their finances. This situation has prompted both federal and state efforts to increase financial education, but much of it hasn’t helped. What has helped? NPR takes a look.

Weakening Infrastructure – Outside conservative advocacy groups — mostly controlled by a small network of extremely wealthy donors — have built sprawling national political institutions with large enough staffs and financial clout to rival a weakening GOP infrastructure. The effect of this shifting locus of key resources has been to move Republican politicians toward positions held by outside groups like the Koch-funded Americans For Prosperity, and consequently, the party has lost its levers of power. Read more in Vox.

Schism – Trump’s supporter, as a group, have been analyzed almost more than the candidate: who are they and what do they have in common? One thing is for certain, Trump has Whoever wins the Republican nomination, it’s too late to address the concerns of Mr. Trump’s core constituents before November. Read the Op-ed in The New York Times.

Case Study: The Potty Wars – North Carolina recently enacted some of the most strenuous anti-LBGT legislation in the nation, which requires individuals to use restrooms corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificate as well as restrict an individual’s power to sue for discrimination in state court and block local gay rights protections. The state legislature passed HB 2 in response to the City of Charlotte, NC passing broad ordinances allowing transgendered individuals to use whatever bathroom they choose. After strong national outcry, the state’s Governor Pat McCrory, who is running for a second term, attempted damage control with an executive order that would walk back the law portions of the law, but not really. The move only managed to anger McCrory’s Republican base in the state, while Democrats and other states remained upset. It is an excellent example of the increasingly strident Republican schism. Read more about in The Washington Post.

Job Hopping – When tech was a nascent sector, there were two hubs of activity in the US – Silicon Valley and just outside of Boston on Route 128. While the West Coast thrived, the East Coast didn’t…perhaps due to the Massachusetts’s enforcement, and the California banning, of noncompete clauses. Read more in Vox.

A Little Too Focused – A couple in a bar was so engrossed in canoodling that they completely missed a robbery. Read more and watch the video at NPR.

Energy & Water Appropriations Measures Move Forward

Posted on April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

Today, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved their respective FY 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bills.

This morning, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee passed by voice vote the FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill will now be referred to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is an increase of $53 million, or 1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $5.347 billion. The bill funds ARPA-E at $305.8 million, which is an increase of $14.8 million, or 5.1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $291 million.

This afternoon, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote its FY 2017 spending bill providing $37.5 billion for the Department of Energy and water programs. The measure includes $6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, $12.9 billion for nuclear security programs and $1.14 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, according to a committee summary.

The Senate bill totals $37.5 billion, which is $355 million above FY2016 enacted funding levels and $261 million above the President’s FY 2017 request. During his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) stressed the importance of doubling funding for basic energy research. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is $53 million, or a 1 percent increase over FY2016 enacted funding levels ($5.347 billion). This is the same amount of funding the Office of Science received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was marked-up earlier today.

The Senate proposal eliminates funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Both Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were in agreement on the elimination of this program. Chairman Alexander remarked that the elimination of funding for ITER would save $125 million for investment in other areas. Ranking Member Feinstein said that continued funding of ITER would threaten domestic fusion programs and the Army Corp of Engineers.

The bill funds ARPA-E at $292 million, which is consistent with the amount of funding it received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill also funds exascale computing at $285 million.

The measure is scheduled for full committee consideration Thursday and is expected to reach the Senate floor next week.

Senate Appropriations Committee Announces Markups

Posted on April 8, 2016

Like the House, The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced will hold full committee markups of the Energy-Water and Military Construction-VA appropriations bills on Thursday, April 14. At that meeting, the committee will also disclose discretionary spending levels for individual subcommittees, known as 302(b)s.

The Senate has yet to pass its FY 2017 Budget, but Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has previously announced the Senate’s intention to hold to the budget agreement made last year, and move forward with a deeming motion allowing the FY 2017 appropriations process to move forward.