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Category: Legislation

Mêlée for NDAA

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Both the White House and chief Democrat of the the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith (D-WA) have both expressed a lack of support for the FY16 NDAA measure, which is expected to be considered today on the House Floor. The White House issued an Statement of Administrative Policy in which it issued a veto threat.  In part the administration objects to the accounting devices  used by the Armed Services committee, as advocated in the House and Senate budgets, to avoid the Sequester budget caps.

The Administration strongly objects to the bill’s authorization of sequester level appropriations for items that were requested in and belong in the base budget, and use of OCO [Over Seas Contingency Fund]– a funding mechanism intended to pay for wars and not subject to the budget caps – to pay for $38 billion in base requirements.  Sequestration adds risk to our national security by threatening the size, readiness, presence, and capability of our military, and threatens the economic security on which our national security depends.  The Committee clearly recognizes that the President’s Budget level for defense is needed, but authorizes it in a way that fails to acknowledge the need to reverse sequestration for both defense and non-defense spending.

Similarly, Congressman Smith has issued a statement against the measure, which he helped write and voted for in committee. Specifically, Smith said he objected to use of the supplemental OCO war fund to shield the Pentagon from strict spending caps while leaving other federal agencies subject to the caps.

House Democratic leaders are whipping Members to vote against HR 1735, the NDAA. In addition, the White House is threatening to veto the measure in large part because of the use of OCO funds to allow the Pentagon to evade the spending caps put in place under the Budget Control Act of 2011.

The move is seen as one to pressure Republican House and Senate leadership into repealing the Sequester in its entirety.

Nearly 350 Amendments were offered to the NDAA, and the House Rules Committee will meet today at 3 pm to determine which amendments will be considered on the House Floor.

To follow the bill on the House Floor and the progress of the various amendments, the House Armed Services Committee has created this handy tracker.

NDAA PATRIOT Act Combo with an Abortion Chaser

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Today, the House will vote on the rule to consider the NDAA. In a development, the Rules committee decided to combine the NDAA with two other pieces of legislation, namely HR 2048, the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 and HR 36, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

HR  2048, the USA FREEDOM Act is a bipartisan measure that extends certain provisions of the Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire at the beginning of June.  Additionally, the measure modifies domestic surveillance authorities by prohibiting the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk collection and storage of telephone metadata and ability to collect other bulk data, requiring the NSA to obtain approval from the FISA court to examine the calling records of individual target telephone numbers on a case-by-case basis (before requesting the information from a phone company) and limiting the associated calling records of a telephone number that may be examined to two “hops” from the suspect’s number. No amendments will be considered on the measure including an amendment  once again offered to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and require a warrant to access stored emails, along with a handful of other anti-surveillance amendments from privacy minded lawmakers trying to beef up protections in the legislation.

While, HR 2048 is bipartisan, HR 36, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is not.  The bill bans abortions in cases where the probable age of the fetus is 20 weeks or later and imposes criminal penalties on doctors who violate the ban. It provides exceptions in cases where the life of the woman is in danger, or in cases of rape or incest.

Originally, the measure was slated for House consideration in January but was pulled because of Conservative Republican women legislator’s objections over language requiring rape victims to report the crime to qualify for the exception. GOP leaders this week are putting forward a significantly modified version which drops the rape reporting requirement, and instead requires women to receive counseling or medical treatment for the rape at least 48 hours prior to the abortion procedure and to sign (along with the doctor and a witness) an informed consent form, and requires that a second doctor trained in neonatal resuscitation be present for abortions where the fetus has the “potential” to survive outside the womb, and if born alive requires that the infant be admitted to a hospital. The bill does still include similar reporting requirements for abortions for pregnancies resulting from incest.

A one technical amendment will be considered.

Democrats are expected to rally against the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised his chamber will vote on the measure as well.

A vote on the rule to consider the NDAA will be a vote to consider HR 2048 and HR 36 as well.

While the White House has made clear its support of the surveillance bill, it has issued a veto threat for the abortion bill.

 

House Gets Ready to Consider COMPETES and NDAA

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The House Rules Committee will meet at 3pm on Wednesday to considered movement forward for both HR 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2016 and HR 1806, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015.

Today, the House Rules Committee will meet to consider the overall rule for the NDAA, and subsequent to that will determine which amendments will be considered on the House Floor. Over 300 amendments have been filed, and the full list is here.

When the House Rules Committee meets on Wednesday the will also consider the rule for COMPETES and what amendments will be considered on the House Floor. Over 40 amendments have been filed, and the full list of all the amendments is here.

The House is expected to consider the NDAA this week and COMPETES next week.

Two Down…10 To Go

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Yesterday the House passed the first appropriations vote of the season. The FY16 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (HR 2029) passed with a vote of 255 – 163, largely along party lines. Known colloquially as MilCon-VA, the measure is historically the least controversial of all the 12 annual appropriations bills. It passed last year with the support of every House Democrat and Republican with the exception of Rep. Raúl M. Labrador  (R-ID), a conservative with an idiosyncratic voting record.

On Wednesday morning, threats to withhold votes on the bill took on new significance as Democrats were emboldened by President Barack Obama’s veto threat, disapproval from the VA secretary and grumbles from influential veterans services organization. All the stakeholders said the funding levels were too low.

And by Wednesday evening, Republicans saw a second red flag, prompting them to suddenly cancel scheduled votes that night on remaining MilCon-VA amendments and final passage.

House Democratic leaders succeeded in holding all but 19 of their Members in voting against the measure without even formally whipping against the Republican bill.

This morning, the House approved its FY16 Energy & Water spending bill (H.R. 2028) on a largely party-line vote of 240-177. The bill includes $5.1 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, which is a small increase of $29 million, or 0.6 percent, above the FY15 enacted level.

Within of the Office of Science are the following funding amounts:

  • Advanced Scientific Computing Research: $537.5 million, an increase of $3.4 million, or 0.6 percent, above FY15;
  • Basic Energy Sciences: $1.7 billion, an increase of $37 million, or 2.1 percent, above FY15;
  • Biological and Environmental Research: $538 million, a significant cut of $54 million, or 9.1 percent, below FY15;
  • Fusion Energy Sciences: $467 million, a slight increase of $100,000 over FY15. The measure would freeze funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at the FY15 level of $150 million, and raise funding for the domestic fusion science program by $100,000 to $317 million.
  • High Energy Physics: $776 million, an increase of $10 million, or 1.3 percent, above FY15;
  • Nuclear Physics: $616 million, which is $20.6 million, or 3.5 percent, above FY15; and
  • ARPA-E: funding is frozen at the FY15 level of $280 million.

 

 

 

More Books! Initiatives from the White House and Rep. Suzan DelBene

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Today, President Barack Obama announced that major and independent book publishers are making 10,000 of their most popular titles available for free for low-income students through e-books, and effort estimated to be worth about $250 million. Obama said the devices will play a big part and a gap in access between low-income students and their peers still exists across the country. This new initiative is a part of the Administration’s ConnectED initiative, first launched in 2013. With smartphone use on the rise, this initiative will allow many low-income students to access e-books at home, they said. As part of the challenge, the Institute of Museum and Library Services will invest $5 million to support the development of an e-reader app, tools and services to access the digital content.

Related to that initiative, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced bipartisan legislation this week to help college students save money on textbooks by encouraging the use of low-cost or free digital course materials in higher education. The E-BOOK Act – or Electronic Books Opening Opportunity for Knowledge Act – would direct the Department of Education to use $20 million to create 10 pilot programs at public institutions throughout the country to increase access to digital course materials, expand the availability of e-readers and tablets for low-income students and encourage professors to incorporate new learning technologies into their classes.

The University of Washington has been a proud collaborator with Congresswoman DelBene on the E-BOOK Act and is a supporter to ensure that texts books are affordable and accessible.