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Category: On the Hill

Congress Comes Back to Work

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Congress returns to work this week for a final few weeks of work before the November elections.  While there is plenty of legislating to do, I don’t expect that we’ll see much action with most major issues being delayed until the post-election lame-duck session.  The only thing that Congress MUST act on before October 1st is to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund government for the next couple of months.  Appropriators are now working on the CR, which could run until the middle of next month or after Thanksgiving.  A second CR may also be needed to buy time as lawmakers work to clear the spending package before the end of the year.

Appropriations

No separate floor action on additional FY11 appropriations bills is currently expected in either the House or Senate, but the Senate may try to complete committee action on their three remaining bills:  Defense, Interior, and Legislative Branch.  All 12 of the House spending bills have been approved by subcommittee, with MilCon-VA and Transportation-HUD also receiving full committee approval.  

Small-Business Aid

The first priority for the Senate appears to be to pass the small-business lending bill.  The bill (HR 5297) would establish a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses, provide $12 billion in tax breaks, and enhance federal programs that support small businesses.  After the Senate passes the bill, the measure will go back to the House for consideration.  The version passed earlier by that chamber includes a smaller tax package, and thus fewer revenue-raising offsets.

Tax Cuts

Extension of the Bush tax cuts is the only other major budget-related legislation that may be considered in the next few weeks.  Senate leadership has indicated their desire to move on extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the middle class before the Senate adjourns for October but it may be difficult to get enough votes for that proposal.  This mirrors the President’s proposal to allow the tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000 a year to expire.  Others believe that all rates to be extended thus preventing any tax increases during these tough economic times.

Climate Change & Energy

The Senate has dropped plans to consider energy or climate legislation before November.  Senate leadership has indicated that they would like to take up in the lame-duck session either all or a portion of an oil spill and energy bill.

Immigration

There is almost no chance Congress will act on any legislation to assist the illegal immigrant population this year, but congressional aides expect lawmakers to at least talk about the issue over the next several weeks.  There is some pressure on the Senate to take action on a bill that allows children of illegal immigrants who go to college to earn citizenship (the DREAM Act) but it is still unlikely that this measure will move before November – at the earliest.  

Stem Cells

Thanks to a federal court’s decision last week to temporarily lift a judge’s ban on embryonic stem cell funding, a House vote on the volatile issue of government funding for stem cell research might be put off until after the midterm election.

FY10 Supplemental Bill

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House Democrats intend to bring a scaled back version of the FY10 supplemental spending bill to the floor by the end of this week, with aid to school districts to prevent teacher layoffs reduced from $23 billion to $10 billion.  The teacher funding is intended to help prevent layoffs for 140,000 school employees next year.  The latest draft also includes funding for Pell Grants to address an unanticipated current year shortfall but the amount was reduced to $4.95 billion from $5.7 billion in this latest version.  The Senate version of the bill does not including funding for K-12 teachers or for Pell Grants.

FY11 Appropriations Update

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On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Justice-Science approved its FY11 draft bill, which would provide $60.5 billion in discretionary spending.  The draft measure would provide $3.9 billion (6 percent) less than 2010 levels, mostly because of the significant increase provided last year to perform the census, and just $2.7 million less than President Obama requested.  House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) has said that discretionary spending in all of this year’s House appropriations bills, except for Homeland Security, will fall below the president’s request.  The draft bill would, however, provide a healthy boost for most of the agencies and programs under the Commerce Department, including $5.5 billion in discretionary funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) representing a 17 percent increase above FY10 levels.  The bill funds the Administration’s request for $26.4 billion for science programs, including $7.4 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Two additional markups are scheduled for today in the House:  Agriculture and State-Foreign Operations.

FY11 Appropriations Process Moving Forward

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Members of Congress face a busy week as they attempt to advance some major bills before the start of the July Fourth recess.  At the same time, the FY11 appropriations process may also begin to gear up this week and move forward after the July recess period.

House Democrats would like to approve the FY10 supplemental budget by the end of this week, which would provide critical war funding as well as some other “emergency” funding including money to help states prevent teacher layoffs.  Democratic leaders are considering using a process where two separate votes would be taken; one for the war money and another for all the other funding.  The supplemental plan now being circulated by Democrats would total $61.5 billion, and would include $10 billion to prevent K-12 teacher layoffs and $4.95 billion for Pell grants.  The Pell grant funding would help fill a hole in the president’s budget request for FY11, and effectively free up discretionary spending for this year’s appropriations bills.

Meanwhile, we may see action on the FY11 appropriations process this week as the House Appropriations subcommittees begin to consider a series of FY11 spending bills.  House appropriators could have half their bills approved at the subcommittee level by the end of the week, with five markups scheduled.  The Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee approved its draft last week, and the following five subcommittees are set to meet in coming days: Commerce-Justice-Science (Tuesday); Agriculture and State-Foreign Operations (Wednesday); and Legislative Branch and Transportation-HUD (Thursday).   However, most of these bills are not expected to be considered on the House floor before November, necessitating a long-term continuing resolution (CR).   Republican appropriators have already signaled that they intend to offer amendments at the subcommittee mark-ups as they may not get another chance to express their concerns about federal spending until after the mid-term elections.   

The Senate may also begin to move a few of their own spending measures.   The Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee has suggested that a couple of the FY11 spending bills would be considered this week but the schedule is still unclear at this point.  If markups for spending bills are scheduled this week and the committee follows past practices, both a subcommittee and full committee markup would be held for the bills considered.

Senator Robert Byrd, 1917-2010

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Early this morning, US Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) passed away at a hospital in Virginia.  Byrd was 92.  

Byrd, who was first elected to the Senate in 1958, was President Pro Tem, a largely ceremonial post but one that put him third in succession to the presidency.  On November 18th of this year, his 20,774th day of service in Congress, Byrd reached a milestone as the longest-serving lawmaker in Congressional history.  He had previously held the title of the longest-serving US Senator.

With the Senator’s death, West Virginia GovernorJoe Manchin (D) must select an interim replacement.  A West Virginia law appears to state that the replacement will likely hold the seat for the remainder of the late senator’s record ninth term, through 2012.  For that reason, Byrd’s death would not impact the partisan makeup of the Senate, nor would it directly impact the pending 2010 elections.  However, there is some ambiguity in the law that has left some election experts questioning the what should happen with the seat.

The Senator’s passing may cause a slight shake-up with Senate Appropriations Committee members.  Byrd has been the second senior member of that committee, behind Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), and the Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.  Depending on who replaces Byrd as chair of that subcommittee, it could cause a small round of musical chairs with other subcommittee chair positions.  I don’t expect any shocking changes, and the Democrats may not make any permanent changes until after the mid-term elections in November. 

As an observer of Congress, I will miss Senator Byrd’s eloquent floor speeches and the way he was able to make his political points using both West Virginia and US historical references.  I didn’t always agree with him, but I certainly respected his point of view — and I almost always learned something new from him.  Thank you Senator Byrd and may you rest in peace.