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Category: Legislation

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.

HASC Passes NDAA

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The House Armed Services Committee once again got its annual National Defense Authorization Act over the finish line this morning. Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) gaveled down at 4:39 a.m. after the panel voted 60-2 to approve the bill and 18 hours after the markup started. Over the course of the session, the panel considered roughly seven dozen amendments – not including those rolled into en bloc packages – with a host of spirited and often lengthy debates.

Overall the NDAA would authorize $495.9 billion in base Pentagon spending, and $611.8 billion in all when the Overseas Contingency Operations budget, Energy Department and mandatory spending are added. The bill is expected to be considered on floor when the House returns the week of May 11, the same week the Senate Armed Services panel will mark up its defense policy measure.

 

House Marks up NDAA TODAY

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The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is going through its annual ritual of marking up the latest version of the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets defense policy and offers a spending blueprint for appropriators. The marathon markup starts at 10 a.m. and in some years has continued until well past midnight.

The legislation is an annual measure authorizing all defense and defense related programs. A number of amendments are expected including some from HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), who’s still recovering from a recent hip surgery but expects to attend today’s markup.

Additional information on the FY16 NDAA can be found here.