House Pulls FY16 Interior Bill

Posted on July 9, 2015July 9, 2015

The House has pulled their FY16 Interior Appropriations bill amid controversy of a Confederate flag amendment. The House has previously considered and passed three amendments restricting funding for federal lands displaying the Confederate flag. Due to Republican concerns these restrictions might impose, an additional amendment was proposed to allow funding on federally owned park land displaying the Confederate flag. The crux of the issue: Civil War battle fields, the bulk of which are now federal park land and have memorials and cemeteries headstones with the flag on them. The bill did not have the votes to pass the House without the new amendment that allowed display of the Confederate flag on federal lands in some instances. Further, it was unclear that the bill had the votes to pass if the amendment was not included.

The bill was first considered but not finished before the July 4th Recess. It is unclear how the bill will or can move forward.

What We’re Reading This Week, July 6-10

Posted on July 9, 2015July 10, 2015

Here’s a selection of article the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

Takes a Village – Because politics makes strange bedfellows, David Brock, the conservative reporter who pushed Paula Jones into the media spot light, is now integral to Hillary’s run as part of Clinton’s shadow campaign, Having seen the light and switching teams to become a Dem, Brock now guides a network of pro-Clinton ‘super PACs,’ mega-donors and opposition researchers via Media Matters, his decade-old nonprofit group that meticulously monitors and counters conservative media. Read more at the LA Times.

21 Million – OPM has revised the number of individuals who had their information stolen during the second hack. The number first reported was 4.5 million, which is now being revealed to be 21 million. Those who had their information stolen are not limited to applicants for federal positions, but to spouses and family members. The hack apparently collected information going back for 15 years. Read more at USA Today.

All About the $$$ – Republicans are using the federal appropriations process to undermine Obama’s legislative and policy priorities. Not a new idea or method, but the New York Times has a story about how it’s fairing this year.

Not Really – In the hotly contested patent reform bills going around Capitol Hill, a recent essay on the Senate’s PATENT Act reveals that it won’t actually help the IP offices at Iowa or Iowa State even though Senator Grassley’s (R-IA) wrote the bill. Read more at IP Watchdog.

GO BOOM!!! – With the federal fiscal agreement due in short order (Sept 30), Republicans and Democrats are locked in a battle of wills to influence the final outcome of the appropriations process and, hopefully, avoid a continuing resolution or another shutdown. Read more at The Hill.

Doh! – Donald Trump has been asked to tone it down by the GOP for the good of the GOP. In true Trump style, Donald doubled down on recent comments. Read more in the Washington Post. Additionally, Trump says that the RNC party chair called to congratulate him. Read more in the New York Times.

John Oliver takes on 15 topics in one minute.

House Turns to 21st Century Cures

Posted on July 9, 2015July 9, 2015

The House will consider HR 6, the 21st Century Cures Act. The bipartisan bill modifies current federal processes involving medical research, developing drugs and other treatments, and testing and approving those drugs and treatments in an effort to accelerate the development and delivery of cures to diseases and medical conditions. It reauthorizes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for three years and includes numerous initiatives to promote medical research and attract young scientists, and it reauthorizes Food and Drug Administration (FDA) activities for five years and modifies elements of FDA’s drug and medical device review and approval process to accelerate the approval and distribution of new drugs and medical devices for diseases and conditions that don’t currently have treatments. It provides $9.3 billion in fully offset mandatory spending for a five-year “Innovation Fund” to provide additional funding to the two agencies, with NIH to receive $1.75 billion a year for biomedical research and the FDA to receive $110 million a year for Cures development activities.

The measure has bipartisan and Administrative support.

The House will begin to consider the measure today and pass it by Friday.

House Passes ESEA

Posted on July 8, 2015July 9, 2015

This evening, the House further considered and passed HR 5, the Student Success Act, which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The House voted on ten amendments for which recorded votes were already requested in February 2015 and considered four new amendments, as well as a Democratic motion to recommit. The bill passed by a narrow vote of 218-213. No Democrats voted for the measure. The legislation would make fundamental changes to many of its programs through fiscal 2019. Additionally, it would allow Title I funding to follow individual students to other schools, and eliminates more than 65 elementary and secondary education programs and merges their funding. The White House has threatened to veto the bill.

The Senate has been and will continue to debate their version of ESEA (S 1177, Every Child Achieves Act of 2015) for the remainder of the week. The White House has issued a Statement of Administrative policy on S 1177, requesting changes to the testing cap, but not a veto threat.

House and Senate Consider Elementary Education Proposals

Posted on July 7, 2015

Dueling education proposals are up in the House and the Senate this week. Eight years after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) officially expired, congressional leaders want to pass a rewrite of the main federal K-12 education law (ESEA) that can get President Obama’s signature. Today, the Senate will begin consideration of S 1177, Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The bill passed the Senate education committee in April by a unanimous vote. The Senate is expected to start debate on the bill this afternoon.

Also today, the House Committee on Rules will meet to consider HR 5, Student Success Act, which is the House bill to reauthorize ESEA. In late February, the House postponed consideration of HR 5 after 43 amendments were debated. Floor consideration will likely resume on Wednesday or Thursday this week under a new rule allowing additional amendments to be made in order.

The bill being considered in the House would transfer far more power away from the federal government than the Senate bill, which passed unanimously out of the HELP committee after bipartisan negotiations between Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-WA). Both bills explicitly prohibit the Education secretary from influencing state academic standards.

As Congress debates education this week, Republicans will try to highlight how far to the right they have moved on the issue since NCLB first passed. Even though the law significantly expanded the federal government’s role, only six Republican senators opposed it in 2001. Keep in mind that, running for president just five years before the law was approved, then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole supported eliminating the Department of Education altogether. However, President George W. Bush pulled his party along with him by pushing for passage of NCLB.

While it is unclear which bill will become law, it seems certain that any legislation that emerges from Congress would dramatically curtail the federal government’s involvement in state standards.

Additionally, it is a very telling, and productive sign, that both the House and Senate can each consider a bill considered such a political hot-potato and essentially a nonstarter last year.