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Category: On the Hill

House Unveils Zika Funding

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Today, House Appropriations Committee released the House Republicans’ $622 million supplemental appropriations bill to fight Zika. The supplemental is expected to be considered by the House this week.

The bill is fully offset, according to a statement released by the Committee. It uses $352 million in “unobligated” money that was appropriated to address the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and $270 million in “unused administrative funding” from the Health and Human Services Department. Funds would be allocated for FY 2016, which means they could be used during the next five months. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) previously announced that the Committee intends to include Zika funding in the FY 2017 Labor-H bill. 

The proposal is likely to be derided by Democratic Members and the Administration, which have repeatedly called for $1.9 billion in emergency funding without offsets to research and combat the mosquito-borne virus.

 

More Movement on Appropriations

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The House and Senate will continue to work on fiscal year 2017 funding bills next week. Both the House and Senate are expected to take up, very different, Zika funding packages next week.  While the Senate will likely to vote to accept a $1.1 billion emergency package, the House plans to vote on a bill that provides less than that but the exact amount the House is willing to provide is not yet clear. Additionally, the House bill will include off-sets and will only provide funding through Sept. 30, the end of FY 2016, unlike the Senate package.  The House has announced that the FY 2017 Labor-H package will include Zika funding. 

Next week, the full House Appropriations Committee markup of the FY 2017 Defense and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, while the respective subcommittees will mark up the FY 2017 CJS and T-HUD bills.  The Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY 2017 Ag and Legislative Branch bills.

Third Time Isn’t Charming for Senate E&W

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In an expected turn of events, the Senate failed to invoke cloture last night. The Senate’s third attempt to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate on the substitute amendment for the FY 2017 Energy-Water appropriations bill fell short.

Senate Democrats have refused to support advancing the measure unless Republicans abandon a proposed amendment by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would prevent the Energy Department from using FY 2017 funds for a planned purchase of heavy water, a byproduct of nuclear fuel processing, from Iran.

The White House has said the amendment would disrupt its agreement to focus Iran’s nuclear development efforts on energy rather than weapons and force President Barack Obama to veto the overall spending measure.

The path forward for this FY 2017 bill remains unclear.

 

Interesting Week Ahead

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The House and Senate return to work this week, including former Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz.

The Senate will try for the third time on Monday to advance its $37.5 billion fiscal 2017 Energy-Water appropriations bill, but there is no indication that leaders will find the 60 votes needed to break the logjam caused by the threat of an amendment related to the Iranian nuclear development deal. Previously, President Obama threatened to veto the bill over an amendment proposed by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) that would bar funding for the U.S. to buy so-called heavy water from Iran. Conversely, the Republican-derided Iran Nuclear Deal requires Iran to export the water, which is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production. Without a plan forward, the bill looks to stall out just as it has previously. Senate Republican leadership has suggested allowing Senator Cotton to hold a vote on the amendment as a separate measure, but it is unclear if Senate Democrats are open to the idea. 

Meanwhile, the House will turn its attention to opioid abuse by focusing on two bills (H.R. 5046 – Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016 and S. 524 – Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016) designed to give relief to American local communities dealing with the spike of opioid abuse. Additionally, the House will gear up for consideration of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week. The NDAA is the annual authorization bill determines the agencies responsible for our nation’s defense, establishes funding levels, and sets the policies under which money will be spent.

With less than 50 legislative days left before October 1, which is the statutorily mandated dated start of the federal fiscal year, the likelihood of the Congress considering all 12 of the standing appropriations bills continues to shrink. A continuing resolution is all but assured in September before Congress recesses for the election.

Senate Moves Forward on Budget

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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Michael Enzi (R-WY) filed a budget motion in the Senate today to establish discretionary spending topline numbers, known as 302(b)s for FY2017. The move allows appropriations work to begin in earnest as the Seante prepares to take up its Energy-Water measure (S 2804) this week.

Enzi set the budget limits at $551 billion for defense spending and $518.5 billion for nondefense spending, equal to the caps enacted under last year’s bipartisan budget deal. The agreement provided for Enzi to file the toplines between April 15 and May 15 in the absence of a budget resolution, though Enzi has not ruled out considering a complete budget measure later in the year.