Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Legislation

Move to Defund Planned Parenthood Fails in Senate

Posted on

Senate Democrats and a eight Republicans blocked a proposal that a constituted a continuing resolution that would run through December 11 and prohibit for one year federal funding for Planned Parenthood or its affiliates unless they certify that they will not perform or fund abortions during that period. The Senate rejected, 47-52, the motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment to the joint resolution. The measure failed to even win a simple majority vote.

Sixty votes were needed to advance the measure. Republican senators voting with Democrats included Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Ben Sasse (R-NE).

Following the failure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to set up a vote on a clean spending bill that would avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1, although House Speaker John Boehner still has not said whether his chamber will take up the Senate legislation.

The Senate is expected to take a cloture vote in relation to a “clean” continuing resolution on Monday, September 28th, two days before the government’s funding authority expires.

Perkins Deal Reached

Posted on

The House and Senate have introduced bipartisan legislation to extend the Perkins program, which is set to expire in less than one week.

On the House side, Reps. Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced bi-partisan legislation extending the authorization of the Perkins Loan Program, which is similar to a measure the duo introduced in June t. The measure,  HR 3594, Higher Education Extension Act of 2015, is expected to be considered and passed by the House next week.

 

Additionally, four Senate HELP Committee members introduced a bipartisan resolution today “expressing support for the continuation of the Federal Perkins Loan Program.” Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a measure to express support to extend the Perkins program for this year. The introduction of the resolution signals broad support by the Senate to reauthorize the Perkins program for a year.

Perkins, the $1 billion campus-based loan program for exceptionally needy students, is just six days from expiring . While it has many backers in both chambers of Congress, most Republicans – including the House and Senate education committee chairmen – have shown no inclination to extend the program beyond Sept. 30.

The cost of the extension (approximately $250 million) will be paid for by limiting the grandfather clause, in that “grandfathered students” will only be able to take out Perkins loans through March 31, 2018 instead of throughout their entire academic career.

With the introduction of the pay-for and the bipartisan Senate resolution, the extending the program may move forward.

To read the House bill, click here.

To read the summary of the House bill, click here.

To read the bipartisan Senate resolution here.

Continuing Resolution Released

Posted on

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) just released the text of a short-term continuing resolution. Immediately following that announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered that CR as a substitute amendment to H.J.Res.61 and filed cloture on the amendment. That cloture vote is expected to occur Thursday afternoon at a time to be determined. That vote is expected to fail with Democrats voting against it.

Majority Leader McConnell will then strip out the Planned Parenthood defunding provision and the Senate would vote on a clean CR. Procedurally, they would have to take at least one additional cloture vote to advance the clean CR, which could occur over the weekend with final passage possibly delayed into next week. Assuming that clean CR passes, the House next week will have to decide whether to accept it and keep the government open or reject it, leading to a shutdown.

The proposed CR would keep government operating through December 11, 2015. It provides funding for all discretionary programs at the FY2015 levels, except for a very small number of anomalies, such as an additional $700 million to fight wildfires.  It contains a small across-the-board cut of 0.2108 percent to keep total funding under the FY2016 budget caps.

For more details see on the substance:

FY2016 Continuing Resolution One-Pager

FY2016 Continuing Resolution Section-by-Section Analysis

FY2016 Continuing Resolution Legislation

 

Senate HELP Hearing on Sexual Assault

Posted on

The Senate HELP Committee’s will hold another hearing related to the Higher Education Act reauthorization today. This hearing will focus on combating campus sexual assault. Sexual assault is one of four key areas for which Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) established staff working groups to guide the committee’s reauthorization process.  Sen. Alexander is in Tennessee today due to an unexpected conflict, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) will lead the hearing in his absence. Much of the focus of the hearing, indirectly, will be on the Senate’s Campus Accountability and Safety Act (CASA) legislation, which was introduced last Congress and again this year.

There will be two panels at the hearing today. First up, CASA sponsors Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Dean Heller (R-NV), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will speak on much-discussed CASA bill. A second panel will feature safety advocates and higher education officials: Dana Bolger, Co-founder of Know Your IX; Dolores Stafford, Executive Director of the National Association of Clery Compliance Officers and Professionals and President and CEO of D. Stafford & Associates; and Mollie Benz Flounlacker, Associate Vice President for Federal relations at the Association of American Universities. University of California President Janet Napolitano will also testify about the bill – which includes provisions she supports and others she takes issue with – and the need to improve existing laws.

The hearing starts at 9 a.m. EST and will be live streamed.

House Looking at a Continuing Resolution

Posted on

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today said that Congress will need a continuing resolution before the end of the FY2015, which is September 30th.

There are three types of federal appropriations measures. Regular appropriations bills provide most of the funding that is provided in all appropriations measures for a fiscal year and must be enacted by October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. These are the 12 regular appropriations bills which have been passing the House and Senate up until earlier this month.  If regular bills are not enacted by the beginning of the new fiscal year, Congress adopts continuing resolutions (CR) to continue funding, generally until regular bills are enacted. Supplemental appropriations bills provide additional appropriations to become available during a fiscal year.

The House has been largely stalled in moving appropriations bills forward since the FY2015 Interior Appropriations bill issues with the Confederate flag. It has largely been speculated that Congress will move towards a CR, which is a very commonly used funding device, and then begin working on a larger omnibus appropriations bill — a bill that combines many of the appropriations bills into one package. Omnibus appropriations bills are typically moved as straight up or down votes, at or near to the Christmas holidays.

While Boehner gave no indication as to how long a CR would be crafted or what it would look like, his mention is the first admission by senior Congressional leadership that a CR will happen.