House to Consider FY16 Interior Bill

Posted on June 23, 2015

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 Subcommittee Passes FY16 Labor-H

Posted on June 23, 2015

The Senate Appropriations Labor, Health, Human Services, Education and Labor Subcommittee considered and passed their FY16 Labor-H bill today. While the Senate version has a higher discretionary amount than the House version, which will need to be worked out in conference.

Education Funding

The Committee bill provides funding to increase the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,775 in the 2015-16 school year to an estimated $5,915 for the 2016-17 school year. While the bill maintains $22.5 billion in discretionary spending for Pell Grants in fiscal year 2016, it would rescind $300 million in funds that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be needed to support the program next year. The bill also cuts $29 million from Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and $40 million from Federal Work Study. All three programs help low- and moderate-income college students and their families cover the many costs of higher education.

Similarly to the House version, the Senate includes several policy riders to address and curtail administrative actions taken by the Department of Education (ED). The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the ED from moving forward with several new regulations expanding the Federal government’s role in higher education, until Congress has an opportunity to weigh in through the authorization process, as appropriate. Specifically, the bill prohibits the Department from moving forward with regulations or policies to develop or implement a college ratings system, define gainful employment, establish requirements for the State authorization of higher education programs, define credit hour, and establish a new accountability framework for teacher preparation programs.

Health Funding

The bill funds the Department of Health and Human Services at $70.4 billion, a $646 million decrease from FY2015. Further, the bill eliminates Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding and includes several provisions prohibiting any funds from being transferred to specific ACA activities that were never intended to be supported with discretionary funds prevent the administration from diverting funds away from core CMS activities. In addition, several oversight provisions are included in the bill:

Risk Corridor – Bill language is included requiring the administration to operate the Risk Corridor program in a budget neutral manner by prohibiting any funds from the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill from being used as payments for the Risk Corridor program.
State-Based Exchanges – With the increasing number of State-Based Exchanges failing due to lack of revenue, the bill includes new language preventing the administration from using discretionary funds to pay for operational costs for these Exchanges.
Health Exchange Transparency – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish ACA-related spending by category since the Act’s inception.
ACA Personnel – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish information on the number of employees, contractors, and activities involved in implementing, administering, or enforcing provisions of the ACA.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $32 billion, an increase of $2 billion above FY2015. This is the largest increase the NIH has received since its doubling ended in 2013.

$200 million for Precision Medicine;
$350 million increase for the National Institute on Aging, the lead Institute researching Alzheimer’s disease;
$135 million, an increase of $70 million, for the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain;
$461 million, an increase of $100 million, to Combat Antibiotic Resistance;
$300 million, an increase of $26.7 million, for the Institutional Development Award;
and increases to every Institute and Center to continue investments in innovative research that will advance fundamental knowledge and speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive measures to improve the health of all Americans.

Other Provisions

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The bill fails to provide a requested increase of $40 million for fiscal year 2016 to support the costs associated with replacing CPB’s interconnections system. To cover these costs, the bill would allow CPB to make cuts to its support for local television and radio stations.

Social Security Administration (SSA). The bill cuts SSA by $185 million, or roughly two percent, affecting the 50 million Americans who currently receive retirement and survivor benefits from Social Security, as well as the millions more who become eligible this year. On an average work day in fiscal year 2016, SSA predicts it will process about 22,000 applications for retirement and survivor benefits, a 29 percent increase since fiscal year 2008. At this bill’s funding level, SSA would need to reduce staff, office hours, planned information technology investments and curtail planned improvements to customer service and program integrity. This reduction could result in a furlough of up to two weeks for SSA staff.

Federal Relations will continue to track the legislation and provide updates as text and report become available.

More Details on House FY16 Labor-H

Posted on June 23, 2015

The House Appropriations Committee posted the committee report to their FY16 Labor, HHS, and Education (Labor-H) appropriations bill today giving additional insight to the legislation passed earlier last week.

The bill provides a new maximum Pell award of $5,915 but discretionary funding is down $370 million. They take this money from the current surplus. The committee report states (page 133):

The Committee recommendation uses this surplus along with the funds appropriated in this bill to maintain the maximum Pell Grant award in the 2016–17 academic year. However, the Committee notes with concern that the Pell Grant program will again face a significant fiscal shortfall in future years without further reforms to make the program more efficient and targeted to the students and families that are most in need.

Additionally,

Federal Supplementary Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) is level funded at $733 million
Federal Work Study is level funded at $989 million
Federal Student Loans (Title VI programs) are level funded ($65 million for the domestic program and $7million for the overseas programs)
Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program is funded at $25 million (a cut of $4.2 million)
Institute for Education Studies (IES) is funded at $409 million (a cut of $163 million)

Senate Passes NDAA, but FY16 Defense Funding Stalls

Posted on June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

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.

FY2016 Labor-HHS Bill Moves Through Subcommittee

Posted on June 18, 2015

The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved its FY2016 spending bill by voice vote, with all Democrats voting against the proposal. The panel earlier had rejected a dozen amendments in a series of voice votes, with partisan splits apparent over family planning and the implementation of the 2010 health law. However, members of both parties made it clear that they would like to see a new law passed to ease the cap now in place on most federal spending. The measure will be considered by the full appropriations committee next week.

Given the return of sequestration in full force for FY2016, the Labor-HHS panel may have little room to do more than tweak budget accounts. The current budget caps for discretionary spending will make it difficult to reward favored programs without making deep reductions elsewhere.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill may be the one bill that thwarts the Republicans’ goal of moving all 12 appropriations measures by the end of the federal fiscal year (September 30^th). Because of the politically-contentious policies carried out through the bill – such as abortion, labor issues, and the Affordable Care Act – there are strong doubts that even GOP control of both the House and Senate can get Congress back in the habit of considering it beyond an omnibus spending package.

But there is a bit of a new dynamic this year, since the Labor-HHS bill funds agencies charged with facing some of the nation’s most pressing issues, including the lingering threat of Ebola, a resurgence of measles, and calls to move ‘cures’ through clinical trials faster. There’s interest in both parties in the budget and operations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Next week’s full committee mark-up of the Labor-HHS bill will likely be a repeat of yesterday’s subcommittee mark-up. We will see lots of amendments fall along party lines, and the underlying bill will remain largely unchanged from its current draft. And while the full House will likely approve the measure, action in the Senate is still in doubt as Democrats have vowed to block all FY2016 spending measures until a new budget deal is agreed on that will lift the spending caps.