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Category: Administration

House Turns to 21st Century Cures

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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 and Senate Consider Elementary Education Proposals

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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.

Fourth of July Recess

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Both the House and Senate are in using the Fourth of July as a district work period. Congress will return Monday, July 6th to continue working on the FY16 Appropriations process!

Happy Fourth of July!

OMB Writes Letter of Concern about Senate FY16 CJS

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The White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan has issued another letter on the FY16 appropriations proposal currently working their way though Congress. Today, Director Donovan’s letter was addressed to the Senate and expressed concern over the Senate’s FY16 CJS spending bill.  The letter outlines concerns about underfunding the important investments in a diverse set of agencies and programs (from science agencies like NSF and NOAA to law enforcement as well as the census)  and includes highly problematic ideological riders. Over all the letter echo previously seen concerns about Congress crafting these bills in accordance to sequestration funding limitations, while not working on a FY16 budget that would supplant the sequester.

Specically, the letter outlines concerns for maintaining our nation’s ability and capacity at science-focused agencies.

  • The bill cuts the President’s Budget by $245 million, or 64 percent, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) next generation ofpolar-orbiting weather satellites which puts the continuity of the polar weather observations at substantial risk.
  • The bill underfunds the National Science Foundation, providing $380 million, or 5 percent, less than the President’s Budget for an agency that carries a major share of the Federal Government’s responsibility to support basic research in science and engineering-research that produces the seed com on which future innovation depends, but by its nature is too uncertain in ultimate application to attract private-sector funding. Compared to the President’s Budget, the bill would lead to about 700 fewer research grants, affecting about 9,100 researchers, technicians, and students.

Read the OMB letter here. 

Senate Appropriations Committee Passes FY16 Labor-H

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Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed it’s FY16 Labor-H bill by a vote of 16-14. The Senate draft would cut spending from the 2015 enacted level by almost $4 billion to $153 billion and is $14.5 billion below President Barack Obama’s request. The bill would eliminate funding for the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created by the 2010 health law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) to recommend Medicare spending cuts under certain circumstances.

Both the House and Senate FY16 Labor-H proposals are now cleared to be considered by their respective bodies. There is no timeline on when the Senate would begin consideration of its draft.