Yesterday the House approved a six-month continuing resolution (CR) to fund federal government past March 27th when the current CR expires. The bill would shift billions of dollars to military operations to help the Army and Navy cope with automatic spending cuts ordered by the sequester last week. The measure now moves to the Senate, where a bipartisan coalition hopes to expand on the package next week and give other Cabinet departments the same relief promised to the Pentagon. The Senate Democrat’s challenge will be to devise a package that can win enough GOP support to pass a bill. That makes it unlikely that they will be able to add one of the more controversial spending bills, the Labor-HHS-Education measure that funds NIH. They could however find enough bipartisan support to include some relief for Homeland, Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD.
Category: Legislation
SNOW! Oh, and House Considers FY 2013 CR Today
Federal government is closed today due to an approaching snow storm in the Washington, DC area. It is currently snowing heavily and sideways outside my window, but it is wet snow and doesn’t appear to be sticking much yet. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning through 3:00am Thursday morning, and the local ABC affiliate reports the metro region could get between 5 and 10 inches of snow with heavier snowfall in the suburbs.
All of this activity won’t keep the House from considering their legislative proposal to fund government for the remainder of FY 2013 (the current continuing resolution expires on March 27th). This morning the House will consider both the rule for and passage of the CR to fund the government, with votes wrapping up between 1:00pm and 1:30pm, which should give most members time to get out of town before the bulk of the snow hits the ground. Of course, this probably won’t help members like ours on the west coast as airports in the area have already started cancelling outbound flights.
The House is expected to pass the $984 billion CR today but it does not include much language to soften the blow of the sequester that went into effect last Friday. While it will give the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments more flexibility in implementing cuts, in addition to providing a few extra dollars for each, the proposal will do little to blunt the impact of sequestration on education and research programs.
The House bill would effectively cap regular FY 2013 discretionary spending at about $984 billion, with the sequester triggered on March 1st automatically slicing about $59 billion from the bill’s starting level of $1.043 trillion. That’s somewhat more spending than the $974 billion estimate offered by House Republicans before March 1st when the Office of Management and Budget released its final call on the sequester’s effects. The numbers changed after OMB removed the expenses of programs exempt from sequester, such as military pay, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Pell grants, and added in other money that had not been included in the original assessment of federal spending, such as some unobligated balances.
The Senate may try to move stand alone bills to fund some areas of government rather than just approving another CR. So far they have made some progress on bills to fund Agriculture, Commerce-Science-Justice, and Homeland Security. With only two more working weeks before the two-week Easter recess it is hard to imagine that they will be able to accomplish this and also get the House to agree to that process.
McDermott Legislation Aims to Protect NIH from Sequestration
Yesterday, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced a bill to protect National Institutes of Health (NIH) from impending automatic federal budget cuts. The automatic budget cuts, or “sequester,” will cancel $85 billion in federal spending between March 1 and September 30, including roughly $2 billion from the NIH budget. McDermott’s bill would ensure that NIH’s budget is protected for the balance of this fiscal year.
McDermott’s press release goes on to say that Seattle’s economy relies on federal funding for biomedical research, and that Washington State’s third largest employer, the University of Washington, receives more federal funding than any other public university in the nation.
We applaud Mr. McDermott for his efforts to protect NIH from devastating cuts.
Today in Congress
The Senate is in at 10:00am and will vote on a number of amendments to and final passage of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (S 47). It is expected to pass. The Senate will recess from 12:30pm to 2:15pm for weekly party caucus lunches.
The House returns at noon and will consider three bills under suspension of the rules: the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act (HR 267), the Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (HR 316), and the Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act (HR 235). The House will recess no later than 5:30pm to allow a security sweep of the chamber prior to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
At 8:20pm, the Senate will proceed to the House of Representatives for President Obama’s State of the Union address, set for 9:00pm. The House will meet again at about 8:35pm for the purpose of receiving, in a joint session with the Senate, the President of the United States.
The Week Ahead
Both the House and Senate are out of session today. The Senate returns to work at 2:00pm Monday and will vote on a series of amendments to the Violence Against Women Act (S 47). A vote on final passage could come as early as Monday night. The House returns to work on Tuesday.
President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. It is widely expected that he will focus on fiscal issues, including the deficit and taxes, and will call for Congress to come together to avoid the next fiscal cliff. It is also expected that he will address energy and climate issues, as well as gun control and immigration. All of these priorities will likely be reflected in his budget request, which will be released to Congress in early March.
On Tuesday morning the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), will hold a hearing on the budget and economic outlook prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, and then on Wednesday that same committee will hold a hearing on the impact of budget decisions on families and communities. The House Budget Committee will hold also hold a hearing on the economic outlook on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing titled “Impacts of a Continuing Resolution and Sequestration on Defense.” Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA) is the ranking member on this committee.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on comprehensive immigration revision Wednesday morning, this first of many hearings on this topic.
On Thursday (Valentine’s Day), the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on the itemized deduction for charitable contributions and on previous proposals to modify the deduction and its value. Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Dave Reichert (R-WA) are both members of this committee.
Also on Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing titled “Sustainable Growth Rate: Data, Measures and Models; Building a Future Medicare Physician Payment System.”