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Category: Pure Politics

Senate Passes 10-Week Continuing Resolution

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Today the Senate passed a 10-week continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through December 9. In addition, the CR also provides $500 million for flood relief in Louisiana and surrounding areas, year-long appropriations for military construction and veterans programs, and $1.1 billion for efforts to mediate the spread of the Zika virus. The House must take action on the CR by Friday in order to avoid a government shutdown, as the federal fiscal year ends on September 30. 

Previously, Senate Democrats blocked the measure because it did not contain funding to help Flint, Michigan, repair its lead-tainted water supply. However, House and Senate leaders have negotiated an agreement, and the House will amend its version of the Water Resource Development Act (WRDA) to provide funding for Flint to mediate its water emergency. 

Count Down to Shut Down: New Strategy

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Senate leaders have been locked in partisan combat for days over whether a stopgap spending measure to keep the government running past Friday should include disaster aid at all. Senate Republicans included $500 million for flood victims in Louisiana and other water-drenched states, where thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. Democrats, however, have insisted that any effort to help Louisiana should be coupled with aid to Flint, MI, where an estimated 9,000 children have been poisoned by lead from a contaminated water system for more than a year.

The Senate Republican proposed stopgap measure, which was presented last week and  drafted last week without Democratic cooperation, would extend current funding levels to December 9, while providing $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus. It also would offer a full year of funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects.

The measure failed, as expected, to advance the measure Tuesday, when supporters mustered only 45 votes for it on a procedural test or a cloture vote, which requires 60 votes to proceed.

Today, the Senate has invoked cloture on a 10-week continuing resolution. The vote is the first in a series on the stopgap spending package, which is needed to avoid a government shutdown when FY 2016 funding expires at midnight on Friday. Senate Democrats objections were resolved Wednesday following the failed vote on Wednesday after congressional leaders reached a deal to provide aid for Flint, MI, through separate authorizing legislation.

The tally was 60-13 with voting continuing to proceed on the motion, and ending debate.

Shut Down Looms, Senate Fails to Get Cloture

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This afternoon, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture, or limit debate, on the expected legislative vehicle for a 10-week continuing resolution (CR). The measure funds the government until December 9th as well as includes emergency spending to combat the Zika virus; $500 million in flood relief for Louisiana and other states; and full-year appropriations for military construction and veterans programs, among other contents.  Without cloture, the Senate cannot move forward procedurally with a stopgap needed to keep the government funded past Friday September 30.

Senate Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the measure because it contains no funds for Flint, MI to repair its lead-contaminated water system. Top Senate Democrats said they would not settle for a commitment from Republicans to include the money during a conference committee consideration of a water resources bill that has passed the Senate and is being considered in the House this week.

Following the vote, Senate Republicans said they are weighing the possibility of dropping flood relief for Louisiana and other states from the package in order to meet Democratic demands and avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week. 

On the House side, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) stated that the House will “have a response” if the Senate’s procedural vote on the continuing resolution is rejected this afternoon. In addition, on Monday night the House Rules Committee advanced a rule for a water resources authorization bill that includes language providing “same-day authority” through September 30 to speed consideration of a CR. The Rules Committee last week had already granted same-day authority, otherwise known as “martial law,” through Tuesday. 

House and Senate Lawmakers will now have to head back to the negotiating table and hash out a deal palatable enough to garner 60 votes in the Senate that would also pass through the House before Friday at midnight. 

Senate GOP Releases CR

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After scheduling but not voting to debate the Continuing Resolution (CR) measure on Tuesday, the Senate Republicans finally unveiled the measure today and voted to proceed today.  In a bit of political maneuvering, the Senate just adopted by voice vote the motion to proceed and consider the underlying vehicle for the nine week CR (HR 5325, the FY 2017 Military Construction bill).  Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then offered a substitute as well as a cloture motion, amid a rising tide of disagreement among Republicans and Democrats. Senators will have four days to review the text of the Republican-written CR.

Senate negotiators continue to seek an agreement on a stopgap funding bill that would also include a Zika response and full FY 2017 funding for military construction and veterans but negotiations between Senate Republicans an Democrats have been and continue to be contentious.

Republicans insist that the CR is “clean” or free of many of the riders that have bogged down negotiations thus far, such as Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) efforts to prevent the US from turning control of certain internet properties to the UN. That said, the measure would still include emergency funding for flood relief in Louisiana, as well as West Virginia and Maryland and includes Zika funding.

In releasing the bill, Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)said on the floor that Democrats will oppose the Republican’s substitute, the Republican majority’s first public text of a continuing resolution filed in the Senate.

Despite having text, this process is still a long way from being finished.

 

 

 

Hiccup with a CR

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Writing a stopgap spending measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), to avoid a government shutdown on October 1st, just got a bit harder than lawmakers anticipated.

Typically, CRs extend current funding levels into the new fiscal year for a short duration. Unfortunately, there’s a hitch this time. If current FY2016 funding is simply extended, it would exceed the FY 2017 discretionary spending caps as set by Sequestration in 2011. How much will it exceed? According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a straight extension will exceed the caps by $10 billion.As scored by CBO for the purposes of a stopgap, FY 2016 base discretionary spending comes in at $1.080 trillion, $10 billion above the $1.070 trillion, FY 2017 limit.

The CBO explained that most of the excess spending comes from the scheduled expiration of some spending cuts in fiscal 2017, as previously passed in prior fiscal years.

So some of the same budget maneuvers that allowed Congress to spend billions more dollars in FY 2016 are now complicating the crafting of a stopgap funding measure to keep the government operating when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. The maneuvers that were used in FY 2016 include changes in mandatory programs, or so-called CHIMPs, that inflated nondefense spending in FY 2016. CHIMPs refer to provisions in appropriations bills that reduce or constrain mandatory spending, providing an offset for higher discretionary spending.

In preparing for a stopgap spending measure, the CBO’s score must eliminate any savings that do not automatically continue into the next year, including changes in mandatory programs that appropriators often make to free up extra money for discretionary projects. Changes in mandatory programs, mostly from an expiring cut to the Children’s Health Insurance Fund,  account for $5.6 billion of the lost savings. Further, the CBO score assumes that a CR extends the entirety of the subsequent fiscal year, not a short duration — a prudent move since it is currently unclear how long the CR will last. The date being cited most often now is December 9th. 

It is not yet clear whether the overage problem can be fixed through some simple technical corrections, or whether it could mean trimming any popular programs. 

Meanwhile, the House Republican Caucus remains deeply divided on how to proceed. Despite the Constitution clearly stating that the power of the purse originates in the House, the Senate will go first in trying to pass a short-term CR next week to keep the federal government functioning through the November election.

Stay tuned.