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Category: Pure Politics

Spending Bill Clears House, Ready To Be Signed

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Following the Senate’s lead, the House cleared last night H.J. Res. 31, the measure that would keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year (read the explanatory statement for the legislation here).  The House vote was 300 – 128.

As noted yesterday, after President Trump signs the measure later this morning, he is expected to declare a national emergency in an attempt to find additional sources of funding for a wall along the Southern border.  Multiple court challenges are expected to such a move.

 

Trump to Sign Spending Bill, Then Declare National Emergency

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Late this afternoon, the Senate cleared by a vote of 83 to 16 the spending package that would fund the entire government for the rest of the fiscal year (the text of the conference report is available here). The Senate moved to vote on the bill even as the Members were unclear as to whether the President would actually sign it.

To end the drama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared on the Senate floor to announce that President Trump would sign the bill, which does not contain the $5.7 billion requested by the President for a concrete wall.  While declaring that the bill would be signed by the President, McConnell also added that President Trump also plans to declare a national emergency, in an attempt to find additional ways to construct the wall.  A number of Republicans in both chambers of Congress have expressed reservations about such a move, as they are concerned that a future Democratic president might declare a national emergency for other issues, such as gun violence or climate change.  If and when a national emergency is declared, various lawsuits are expected to be filed, challenging that declaration.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later this evening.

Read more about the developments here, here, and here.

We will provide details from the conference report shortly.

Three Week Deal…Some Ancillary Fixes

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As part of the three week deal signed into law on Saturday, the measure (H.J.Res. 28) would reopen the nine Cabinet departments and several independent agencies closed during the shutdown through February 15. Beyond funding these agencies, there were other significant items included in this agreement.

Back Pay

Federal employees will receive back pay as part of the agreement. Most employees should be expect to receive their two missed paychecks by the end of the week. Government contractors may or may not receive missed pay depending on the nature of their contract. States or grantees that helped fill the gap during the shutdown can expect to be reimbursed.

Conference Committee

As part of the agreement, the House and Senate will convene a conference committee to work out a deal on FY 2019 Homeland Security spending, including the fate of the Administration’s demand for $5.7 billion for border wall construction, which is spending Congressional Democrats have long opposed.

Pay-Go

Under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (PL 111-139), the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  is supposed to issue a report within 14 days after the end of a Congressional session outlining whether enacted laws added to the deficit over five or 10 years. If so, then the OMB has to implement across-the-board cuts to any programs not exempt from the statute, to eliminate the excess.

Routinely, since the 2010 law was enacted, Congress has simply decreed that certain pricey provisions will not be added. For example, Congress removed the impact of the $1.5 trillion, 10-year tax cuts from the OMB’s calculations as part the 2017 stopgap appropriations bill both were signed into law the same day.

The stopgap spending bill includes provisions delaying roughly $800 million in spending cuts, mainly (about 90 percent) impacting Medicare. Because Congress did not act in time, the OMB should have had to implement the cuts, but the shutdown delayed implementation.

That Pay-Go “debit” will pop up again next year unless Congress eliminates it once again on any FY 2019 final package. A House-passed, $271.8 billion package (HR 648) of six appropriations measures would have wipe out the scorecard’s existing debit, so only future legislation increasing deficits would count for the OMB’s calculations.

 

Deal Reached to Re-Open Government… for Three Weeks

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At a Rose Garden address this afternoon, President Trump announced that he has reached a deal with Congressional Democrats to reopen the government for three weeks, through February 15.  The three-week extension package does not include funding for a wall along the Southern border.  During his remarks, the president added that the federal workers who have not been paid as a result of the shutdown would receive back pay as soon as possible.  The two chambers still must pass, and the president must sign, legislation that would implement the provisions of the agreement reached today.

The three weeks, in theory, would buy some time for the various parties to negotiate on a path forward on the border wall and other potentially related matters.  However, there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached by February 15.

Read more about this afternoon’s developments here, here, and here.

Shutdown Enters 35th Day

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The partial shutdown is now in its 35th day.  Although the Senate defeated two proposals– the first two proposals that were voted on since the start of the shutdown– yesterday, the two parties have started talking about a path forward.  Read more about it here.

Immediately after the Senate votes, a small group of bipartisan Senators floated the idea of a three-week continuing resolution that would reopen the government temporarily and allow members to negotiate on border security.  That proposal was dismissed by the White House even before it was formally considered because it did not contain any  funding for a wall.  The House Democrats continue to object to funding a wall.