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Category: Administration

House Committee Passes FY16 Labor-H

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The House Appropriations Committee passed it’s FY16 Labor-H bill by a vote of 30-21. The passage came after hours of debate during which Democrats bitterly criticized funding levels for domestic discretionary accounts and saw a series of their amendments defeated. The bill is $3.7 billion below fiscal 2015 enacted levels and $14.6 billion below President Barack Obama’s budget request. It contains increased funding for the National Institutes of Health but would block new discretionary spending to implement the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, the Administration has issued a letter of concern about the legislation. It is speculated that an official veto threat will not be far behind.

The legislation is expected to be considered on the House Floor after the Fourth of July Recess.

 

White House Issues Veto Threat on House’s FY16 House Interior and OMB Letter on FY16 Labor-H Appropriations Bill

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As discussed yesterday, the House’s FY16 Interior appropriations bill contained significant cuts and policy riders which would be of serious concern to the White House. Accordingly, the White House has issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) about the House’s draft bill, which includes a veto threat. Additionally, the OMB Director Donovan wrote a letter on the House’s FY16 Labor-H appropriations bill outlining the Administration’s concerns.

This not the first veto threat offered by the administration this year (see here and here). Both SAPs for the House’s FY16 Interior and FY16 Labor-H measures cite the conformance to Sequestration levels of funding as an overarching reason to veto the measures, which has been a reoccurring theme all year.

The SAP on the FY16 Interior bill cites the drastically underfunded core Department of the Interior programs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s operating budget. Additionally, the SAP states concerns with “the numerous highly problematic ideological provisions that have no place in funding legislation. These provisions threaten to undermine the ability of States and communities to address climate change and protect a resource that is essential to America’s health—clean water, as well as the most basic protections for America’s special places and the people and wildlife that rely on them.

Additionally, the Administration raises concerns with the numerous policy riders including: blocking the Department of the Interior’s proposed fracking regulations; preventing the implementation of the National Ocean Policy; prohibit funding for the EPA to impose new Green House Gas standards; prevent the EPA from continuing work to implement the 2008 Lead Renovating and Repairing rule until the EPA develops a commercially available “improved” lead paint test kit; and allow the use of lead ammunition in the hunting of migratory waterfowl on public lands.

Finally, the SAP raise separation of powers concerns with the bill due to the policy provisions.

The OMB letter on the FY16 Labor-H bill cites the cuts and restrictions to the Affordable Care Act, the cuts to programs like Head Start, the $6.7 billion cut to the Department of Ed (from the PBR’s proposal), and the effective $370 million cut to Pell. The SAP says in part:

“Through a combination of funding cuts and ideologically-motivated restrictions, the Subcommittee bill would obstruct the functioning of the Health Insurance Marketplaces, jeopardizing or disrupting coverage for the more than 10 million people currently enrolled in health insurance plans through the Marketplaces. It would also deny assistance to States expanding their Medicaid programs under the ACA, jeopardizing coverage for many millions more.

– and –

“This bill includes a $370 million cut to the Pell Grant program, which will make it more difficult to help students pay for college over the next decade. It also cuts funding for administering and overseeing the student aid programs by $136 million, or roughly 9 percent, below the President’s request, hurting the Department of Education’s ability to hold the approximately 6,500 colleges and universities that receive Federal dollars accountable to students and taxpayers and ensure that all students have access to high­ quality loan servicing.”

Additionally the letter cites concerns about the elimination of Title X family planning funds, cuts to the Social Security Administration, and cuts to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) which procures new medical countermeasures to protect against potential chemical; biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Finally, the Administration is concerned about the numerous policy riders including the prevention of the ED from implementing the Gainful Employment regulations as well as the host of riders designed to defund and effectively kill the ACA.

 

 

House to Consider FY16 Interior Bill

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The House is expected to consider their FY16 Interior-Enviornment Appropriations bill for the bulk of this week. The $30.2 billion Interior-Environment spending bill will take center stage as the House is scheduled to consider the controversial measure on the Floor, possibly for long hours with many amendments.

The typically contentions bill is particularly so this year because of impacts to environmental policy priorities for the Administration. The bill would bar the Obama administration from implementing its final Clean Water Act rule defining the scope of the government’s regulatory authority under the law. It would keep the Bureau of Land Management from enforcing its hydraulic fracturing regulations on public lands in states that have their own rules governing those operations. Similarly, it would preclude the EPA from imposing a federal plan on states that do not submit their own strategies to implement the agency’s greenhouse gas limits for existing power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan. It contains several policy riders that would block Obama administration initiatives including endangered species protections and climate change regulations.

While the Administration has yet to issue a veto threat against the legislation, it would not be unexpected given the proposed cuts and policy riders.

Senate Passes NDAA, but FY16 Defense Funding Stalls

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The Senate passed the unusually contentious FY16 NDAA, by a vote of 71-25, today. The Senate had planned to move ahead to tackling Defense Appropriations on the Floor, but the measure failed to receive 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and proceed.  As a reminder, the President has issued a veto threat on the bill and Senate Democrats have promised to block any appropriations bills that rely on the current spending plan. The FY16 appropriations cycle was left in limbo after Senate Democrats appeared to have succeeded in torpedoing a procedural vote that would have allowed debate to begin on the FY16 Defense appropriations bill. Democrats in Congress and the White House are opposed to the underlying spending framework.

The full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up the Defense bill on June 11, and here is the press release.

In the bill:

  • RDT&E: $70.325 billion, which is $539.7 million above the President’s FY16 request
  • Basic Research: $2.317 billion, which is $228.5 million over the FY16 request, and a $39.341 million over FY15 enacted.

The report included this language: “The Committee believes that further investment in basic research must continue.  Basic research is the foundation of innovative breakthroughs that are critical to maintaining the Nation’s future technological edge.  Investments in basic research not only provide advances in technology for our military men and women, but also provide an important incubator for national labs and academic research institutions.  These investments also encourage partnerships and collaboration with industry.  In order to keep pace with the global challenges to come, the Committee believes that additional funding should be allocated to Federal research.”

  • Applied Research: $4.928 billion, which is  $215 million over the FY 16 request and $280.3 million over FY 15 enacted.
  • Advanced Technology Development: $5.577 billion, which is $113.6 million above the FY 16 request and $251.5 million over FY 15 enacted.
  • DARPA: $2.865 billion, which is $107.1 million below the FY 16 request and $50.4 million below FY 15 enacted.

White House Signals Concerns with FY16 House’s Financial Services and Senate’s Defense Funding Bills

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Continuing its theme, the White House, though the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shaun Donovan, signaled concerns with two more Congressional appropriations bills. Donovan wrote the House Appropriators about the FY16 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill and Senate Appropriators about the FY16 Defense appropriations bill.

The White House warned that the House’s FY16 Financial Services spending bill, scheduled to be marked up today, would jeopardize the independence of financial regulators, cost billions of dollars in lost tax revenue and hinder implementation of the 2010 health care overhaul.

Similar to previous warnings about the House and Senate NDAA bills and the House’s FY16 Defense spending bill,  Donovan warned that, “The president’s senior advisers would recommend he veto any legislation that implements the current Republican budget framework.” According to the OMB, the Senate’s legislation would implement a “gimmick” by shifting money to war accounts, the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding,  from core budget lines. He also criticized the Senate Appropriations measure’s proposal for “unnecessary” funding of a National Guard and Reserve Component Equipment Account. ​

The White House and Congressional Democrats have been very vocal on a need for Congress to collectively come to the table and cut another deal, similar to the one Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) cut in 2013 in 2013 (Murray-Ryan), to avoid the cuts as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011(sequester). The House is crafting all bills, legislative and appropriations, under the financial caps and resrtaints set by the Budget Control Act, which was binding until 2021.

Read the the letter to House Appropriators about the House’s FY16 Financial Services bill here. 

Read the letter to Senate Appropriators about the Senate’s FY16 Defense bill here.