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Category: 2018 UW Federal Agenda

Two Biggest Spending Bills Likely to See Senate Movement

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After the Senate returns from its abbreviated August recess this Wednesday, it is expected to start debate on the two biggest spending bills, the Defense and Labor-HHS Appropriations Bills. The Senate will most likely combine the two measures into a single package, which, if passed, would include a total of approximately $857 billion in total spending for defense, health, education, and labor programs.

The House, which remains in recess through Labor Day, has made no announcements regarding its plans for the two bills.

 

Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings to Start Day After Labor Day

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Even as the Senate continues to work through FY2019 spending bills this week, a process that has been noticeable in its bipartisanship so far, the partisan fights are expected to return in full force the day after Labor Day, when the Judiciary Committee is scheduled to start the confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nomination.  The hearings are expected to take multiple days and the goal of the Senate Republican leadership is to get the nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, confirmed before the November elections.

 

Senate Clears Four-Bill Minibus

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Earlier today, the Senate passed a four-bill “minibus” by a vote of 92 to 6. The package includes FY2019 Agriculture, Transportation and Housing Urban Development, Financial Services, and Interior appropriations bills. As noted yesterday, this means that the Senate has now cleared seven of the 12 spending bills.  The House has passed its versions of the Interior and Financial Services bills.

 

 

 

Progress and Potential Stumbling Blocks Seen on FY2019 Spending

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While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills.  If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.

While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain.  For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.

In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.”  This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move.  It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.

House Democrats Unveil HEA Legislation

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To counter the House Republican proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), the House Democrats today will introduce their own version of a reauthorization bill.  The Democrats’ package, the Aim Higher Act, will serve as their messaging document moving forward.  It is not expected to move through the legislative process.

A number of documents related to the legislation are available:

  • a detailed summary of the bill produced by the Democrats on the Education and the Workforce Committee is available here;
  • the committee Democrats have also produced a “fact sheet”; and
  • a press release about the measure is available here.

The House Republicans’ bill, the PROSPER Act, was passed by the Education and the Workforce Committee late last year but has not yet come to the floor for a vote as the committee chairwoman has not been able to generate enough support for its passage.