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Category: Legislation

Ryan Reveals House FY15 Budget

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House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the House FY15 Budget today. The measure proposes to cut $5.1 trillion over a decade in a bid to erase the federal deficit, while calling once again for dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code.

The House proposal would significantly reduce federal support for college access. The Ryan Budget would  eliminate the interest subsidy for all subsidized undergraduate student loans — based on a CBO estimate last year,that would increase loan costs to students by some $50 billion over ten years. The proposed budget would eliminate all mandatory funding for Pell, shifting it totally to discretionary funding, while freezing the maximum Pell grant for the next decade. That essentially means that $870 in the maximum grant would have to be funded by increased discretionary funds or the maximum be cut from $5,730 to $4,860.

Additionally, the Ryan Budget proposes to cut Non Discretionary Defense (NDD) funding by $761 billion below the current caps, and more than doubles down on the sequester cuts by shifting all of the cuts scheduled for defense starting in FY16 to NDD funding. In FY 16, the NDD cap would be cut from $492 billion to $450 billion, an 8.5% cut.  By the end of the ten year window, NDD would be cut by 22%.

The nearly 100-page blueprint is likely be the last formal budget proposal from Ryan, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee who wants to move to the more powerful Ways and Means Committee next year.

The House Budget Committee is expected to mark up the legislation Wednesday in a session expected to last well into the night.

The Office of Federal Affairs is continuing to review the legislation and will provide updates as the measure changes in the legislative process.

 

Senate Passes House Bill to Raise Debt Ceiling

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With an impending snow storm as a powerful motivator, the Senate passed the House’s bill to suspend the debt ceiling until March 15, 2015 by a vote of 55-42.

Earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas vowed to filibuster the measure since the House Republicans “caved to President Obama” and were unable extract to any spending cuts or other concessions to pass the bill. Such a filibuster could have caused a repeat of last Fall’s government shutdown.

However, much of the Senate’s inclination to stand tough went by the wayside as 5 plus inches of snow have been forecasted for the DC region. Both chambers of Congress have been eager to get out of town this afternoon given the storm hitting the eastern seaboard and the amount of snow that’s expected to fall in the Washington area.

The Senate voted 67-31 to end a debate on the legislation or end any filibuster threatened by Senator Cruz. The vote took nearly an hour, but cleared the way to a vote on final passage with a simple majority threshold. A dozen Republicans voted with Democrats to end the filibuster after the Senate Republican Leadership McConnell and Cornyn led the way. Republicans joining Democrats included, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Mark Kirk of Illinois, John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Thune of South Dakota.

Both Washington Senators Murray and Cantwell voted to end the debate and voted for the suspension of the debt ceiling.

House Passes Clean Bill to Raise Debt Ceiling

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With a vote of 221-201 , the House voted to suspend the debt limit for one year without requiring any offsets. Earlier this week, the House had floated the idea of adding military COLA pay to the measure, but ultimately that proposal and other additions were squashed.

The measure narrowly passed and only passed with the help of Democrats. Only 28 Republicans voted for it, while 199 voted no.

The Senate is expected to vote to approve the measure later this week before they recess to avoid DC’s impending snow storm.

In-State Tuition for Veterans Bill Passes House

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Tonight, the House has considered and passed that would require in-state tuition for certain veterans (Section 4 of HR.357, the GI Bill Tuition Fairness Act as amended). The bill was brought up under an expedited process referred to as “Suspension of the Rules.” Bills brought up in this manner are generally bipartisan, non-controversial measures that are expected to pass easily.

In brief, the bill would require all public higher education institutions to charge in-state tuition to a veteran residing in the state of that institution, even if that veteran is officially a resident of another state. This requirement would remain in place for three years after the person is discharged from the military, assuming he or she continues to reside in the state where the institution is located. The in-state tuition policy would apply beginning in July 2016 and would only cover the veteran — not their dependents using GI Bill benefits.  It appears that a consequence of this bill would be that public higher education institutions would no longer qualify for the out-of-state federal benefit of the GI Bill Yellow Ribbon Program since the veterans/students involved here would no longer be considered out-of state.

A much broader bill was previously under consideration that would have required lifetime in-state tuition to veterans and their dependents regardless of their actual state residency.

Nearly 30 states have already passed or are considering enacting legislation to provide in-state residency waivers to veterans at their public colleges and universities. Washington state is currently considering similar legislation that would allow instate tuition for one year. Other states, several individual campuses and university systems offer in-state waivers to their veteran student populations.

The measure passed by a vote of 390-0.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to track this issue and continue to provide updates as the legislation progresses.

Farm Bill Conference Report Announced

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After two years of negotiating, Farm bill conferees announced a sweeping, bipartisan five-year farm bill late Monday. The measure costs an estimated $1.1 trillion and is filled with trade-offs and an estimated savings of nearly $23 billion.

The bulk of savings comes from cutting $19 billion from farm programs, including an end to direct payments to farmers — money that often went to farmers who don’t actually farm. An additional $6 billion is saved by merging 23 separate conservation programs into 13, which is a move supported by conservation groups nationwide. There are $8 billion in cuts tied to the food stamp program which will come largely from increasing the state heating assistance requirement.

The House Rules Committee met late Monday night to fast-track the bill to the House Floor. The bill will come up on Wednesday, before House Republicans depart for their annual policy retreat. The House will consider the conference report well in advance of the House’s Three Day Rule, which requires introduced legislation pend at least three calendar days before it is considered and voted upon by the House. The rule is designed to give Members of Congress and staff time to read and analyze bills.

The text of the bill runs 949 pages and s accompanied by a 186-page managers’ statement.

Already the American Meat Institute and the National Meat Association, who represent cattle, hog and poultry producers, have announced opposition to the conference report and will whip against the bill.

If the House adopts the report, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said his chamber could take up the legislation sometime during the current three-week work period.

The Office of Federal Relations is tracking this issue and will continue to provide updates.