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Category: Administration

Another Tough Night in the Senate, Confirmations Roll On

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During the second long night of debate (Democrats having debated the DeVos vote all night long), the Senate, which is normally very collegial and staid, voted to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday evening during her her speech on Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)’s nomination for Attorney General. Senator Warren was reading a letter from Mrs. Corretta Scott King, late wife of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote in the 1980s in opposition to then Senator Session’s nomination to a federal judgeship. 

The Senate voted 49-43 that Warren violated chamber rules against impugning a fellow Senator after during her speech in opposition to the Sessions nomination.

Sessions is expected to be confirmed as the next attorney general at some point today but the vote could come as late as this evening if Democrats use all of the debate time.

Senate Democrats are expected to continue their tactics of using all the debate time, which results in grueling all night debates, with the remaining Cabinet appointees.

DeVos Confirmed

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Today, the Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. The vote was 51-50 — a tie that forced Vice President Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote. The Vice President has never had to cast the deciding ballot in a confirmation vote before.

DeVos becomes the nation’s 11th Secretary of Education after long and contentious confirmation process.

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with the all the Senate’s Democrats and independents in voting against DeVos. They are the first Republican lawmakers to break with their party in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet confirmation process.

Senate Democrats held the floor throughout the night and Tuesday morning, a final push in a vocal campaign by DeVos’ opponents to convince one more Republican to vote against DeVos’ confirmation.  

2:1 Regulatory Executive Order Outlined

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Last week, President Trump signed issued an Executive Order requiring agencies to repeal at least two regs for every new reg and also capping the total compliance costs of any regulation issued in a given year.

The Administration has also issued interim guidance on the issue. The guidance clarifies that the two-for-one rule applies only to “significant” regulations, which in existing law is defined as any that that imposes an annual economic cost of $100 million or more. According to the guidance, agencies that plan to issue a “significant regulatory action” on or before Sep. 30, 2017 must first identify two existing regulatory actions the agency plans to eliminate or propose for elimination before the new regulation is issued. The agency must also “fully offset total incremental cost” of the new regulation “as of September 30, 2017.”

How will this become a reality? It is not yet clear, but the Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the progress.

For an overview, the Federal Register has an overview of the federal regulatory process here.

More Cabinet Posts, FY 2018 Budget Update

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It will continue to be a busy week for the House and Senate. Today, the Senate will continue to work on confirmations as four Cabinet positions – Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, Rep. Tom Price for Secretary of HHS, and Steven Mnuchin for Secretary of Treasury  – are up for full Senate consideration this week. Rep. Mike Mulvany (R-SC), Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is still working his way through the Senate, which could cause some budget complications for FY 2018 (see below). 

Senators are expected to move on a House-passed Congressional Review Act resolution nullifying a regulation curbing methane emissions from oil and gas wells on federal lands. Once passed, it will mark the third energy-related rule nullified by the Republican Congress. 

Today, the House continues efforts to stop regulations finalized by former President Barack Obama now focusing on the Department of Education. So far, lawmakers have introduced Congressional Review Act resolutions targeting the Obama Administration’s regulations governing teacher preparation programs as well as its accountability rule under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

It is the first Monday in February, which is technically Presidential Budget day. On the first Monday in February, the Administration is statutorily required to submit their budget request for the upcoming fiscal year (in this case FY 2018) to Congress. All recent Presidents (including Obama…multiple times) have missed the statutory deadline for budget submissions in their first year in office. There is no penalty for missing the date and a full budget proposal may not emerge from the White House until April or May.

While a delay in the budget submission is expected for a new Administration, virtually guarantees a delay in the entire FY 2018 appropriations process. Regardless of who controls Congress, lawmakers typically fail to get regular spending bills passed before the start of the new fiscal year, which begins on October 1. This year enjoys the particular complication of not having closed out FY 2017 with the current CR running until April 28th. Congress will have to address FY 2017 and immediately (or concurrently) FY 2018. 

 

DeVos Nomination Heads to Full Senate Vote

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Late Thursday/early Friday, the Senate cleared procedural hurdles that would bring the nomination of Betsy DeVos to the floor for a vote by the full Senate next week. A number of groups have argued against her nomination to become the Secretary of Education and two Republicans have recently stated that they will oppose her. With the current make-up of the Senate 52 to 48 in the Republicans’ favor, and with no Democrats expected to vote for DeVos, Vice President Mike Pence may be forced to cast the tie-breaking vote.