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News and updates

More Disaster Relief; Tax Reform Slowly, Slowly

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It’s getting expensive to deal with disaster relief.

Going first, the House is scheduled to vote this week on the second installment of hurricane relief aid. While the Trump administration requested $29.3 billion, lawmakers have been busy trying to add to the total.

Texas lawmakers want an extra $18.7 billion for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated coastal Houston. The Governor of Puerto Rico asked for another $4.6 billion to help the territory deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Florida lawmakers have asked for an additional $26.9 billion for victims of Hurricane Irma.

If all those requests were honored, the total aid package would balloon to $79.5 billion. Also, House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) has lobbied the White House for extra money for missile defense to combat the threats from North Korea.

Disaster aid is considered emergency funding that is exempt from discretionary spending limits imposed by the Sequester. However, with the ultimate damage assessment from three recent hurricanes projected to reach a few hundred billion dollars, some conservatives are beginning push to pay for long-term rebuilding costs by cutting other programs, which is a nonstarter with Democrats.

This second installment does not even consider how the US is approaching federal disaster preparedness and recover. For example, the Administration’s request includes $16 billion to cancel debt owed by the National Flood Insurance Program, which has faced mountains of red ink since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The FEMA-run program literally can not pay claims.

…and Congress and the Administration haven’t started talking about wildfires yet…

 

Meanwhile, House and Senate leadership are slowly trying to fill in the Administration’s framework for tax overhaul. Generally, lawmakers have said the cost of tax rate cuts would be offset by eliminating most of deductions and credits in the tax code. However, the few ideas floated publicly have run into stiff resistance.

The idea to include a border-adjustment tax, that would have raised $1.2 trillion over 10 years, has been dropped after business lobbies complained that it would raise prices for consumers. Also, the idea to eliminate the state and local tax deduction has unleashed a huge volume of complaints to tax writers. Plans to completely eliminate the “death tax” have also been sidelined as it becomes more clear that reducing of changing existing taxes will be more politically manageable than outright repealing them.

 

DACA Deal Proposed

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President Trump released a list of measures to restrict immigration that the Administration wants in exchange for passing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law. The White House called for the border wall; tougher penalties for asylum fraud; faster deportation of unaccompanied minors; a grant cutoff to sanctuary cities; restriction of permanent-residency sponsorship by U.S. citizens to spouses and minor children; and a merit-based points system for green cards.

The documents do not specify whether all of the President’s policy demands need to be included in a legislative deal to codify DACA.

Politico has posted both the executive summary and the seven-page principles and policies document.

 

What We’re Reading, October 2-6

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Here’s a selection of articles we’re reading this week.

Will the 8th go blue? – The recent retirement announcement by seven-term U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert opens Washington’s first truly competitive congressional race since 2010. The 67-year-old Reichert was hardly the most obvious contender to step aside nationwide, especially after a 20-point win in 2016. But with Republican retirements mounting nationwide, Reichert becomes the latest in a series of races putting the GOP on the defensive. The question is: Can Democrats actually take advantage of the opportunity? Read more from Crosscut.

Tax cuts cost how much? – How to pay for policy proposals lawmakers want to enact is an age-old question in Congress that has killed or stalled countless ideas. That question is now a dark cloud hanging over Republicans as they seek to overhaul the tax code. Read more on Roll Call.

Data Retrival Tool: It’s baaaaack! – The IRS and the Department of Education on Sunday restored the data retrieval tool that allows students to automatically import their family income data into their applications for federal student aid. The IRS abruptly suspended the tool in March, citing suspicious activity and potential vulnerability of taxpayer information.  Read more from Inside Higher Education.

Supreme Court Watch – On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a major new case about partisan gerrymandering. The case began just days after the Nov. 8 election, when a federal court struck down a Republican-drawn legislative map in Wisconsin for being too partisan. Because of special rules for some voting rights cases, the Supreme Court is required to hear the case. Read the analysis from the Washington Post.

Gerrymandering, it’s a science –  About as many Democrats live in Wisconsin as Republicans do. But you wouldn’t know it from the Wisconsin State Assembly, where Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats, a bigger majority than Republican legislators enjoy in conservative states like Texas and Kentucky. The United States Supreme Court is trying to understand how that happened. On Tuesday, the justices heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, reviewing a three-judge panel’s determination that Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn district map is so flagrantly gerrymandered that it denies Wisconsinites their full right to vote. Read more from the New York Times.

 

House Passes Budget

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House Republicans passed budget legislation today that sets the stage for an ambitious tax bill that they plan to pass. The House measure includes language that would allow the Senator to pass a tax measure without invoking cloture. The Senate is proceeding on a separate track toward passing its own budget, which will have to be reconciled with the House version in the coming weeks.

The Senate Budget Committee was poised to finish work Thursday on a resolution that is more focused on the tax legislation than the House version.

New Deputy Secretary at HHS

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Eric Hargan was officially confirmed by the Senate on a 57-38 vote yesterday afternoon.

Hargan’s confirmation comes at a crucial time for HHS, which has relied on career staffer Don Wright to lead the agency since Tom Price resigned as secretary on Friday. Secretary Price’s recent exit helped accelerate the consideration of HHS nominees. Hargan will likely serve as acting secretary until Price’s replacement is confirmed. No word on who will take that position.

Hargan has served in several roles at  HHS before between 2003 and 2007, including Acting Deputy Secretary, before leaving government work to serve as a lawyer in Chicago. Hargan also served on the Trump transition team for HHS.