Justice Antonin Scalia, 1936-2016 (SCOTUS Edition)

Posted on February 16, 2016February 16, 2016

On Saturday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of natural causes in a ranch in the Big Bend area of West Texas at Cibo Creek Ranch. He was 79. Having died in such a remote area, the declaring the justice dead, and disseminating the news of the his death, caused some some issue.

Known for his caustic dissents, Justice Scalia began his service on the court as an outsider, but his theories, initially viewed as idiosyncratic, gradually took hold, and not only on the right and not only in the courts. He has been called the most influential jurist of the last quarter century.

Justice Scalia was a champion of originalism, the theory of constitutional interpretation that seeks to apply the understanding of those who drafted and ratified the Constitution. In Scalia’s hands, originalism generally led to outcomes that pleased political conservatives, but not always. His approach was helpful to criminal defendants in cases involving sentencing and the cross-examination of witnesses.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was an only child who quickly was a standout in high school and subsequently at Georgetown University (graduating summa cum laude) and Harvard Law School (graduating magna cum laude). After practicing law in Cleveland, OH and teaching law at the University of Washington, he was confirmed as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel after the Watergate scandal — he was nominated by President Nixon and served under President Ford.

Eventually, Scalia was nominated and confirmed to the DC Court of Appeals by President Reagan in 1982. Reagan again nominated Scalia for the US Supreme Court in 1986, where he was unanimously confirmed. He was the longest serving justice on the court.

With the death of Justice Scalia, comes a political storm caused by his absence, which is made more keenly felt since there has never been a vacancy on the Supreme Court in a presidential election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has declared that the Senate will not confirm a candidate until after the election of the new president. However, it is unlikely President Obama will not nominate a candidate. Even if the Senate does decide to move forward, it will be a long fight.

That said, the absence of Scalia does not mean that the court will cease working. Rather, the court will continue to work with the slim 5-4 conservative lean now gone. The even 4-4 split of the court calls into questions many of the cases on the docket and potential gridlock on issues, including congressional redistricting, abortion access, birth control access, forming unions, the Administration’s immigration and enviromental policy, affirmative action in college admissions, and more.

Holding with tradition, Justice Scalia will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Friday.

What We’re Reading This Week, February 8-12

Posted on February 12, 2016

Here’s a selection of articles Federal Relations is enjoying this week.

Falling Apart – Congress and the White House were so close to a grand bargain, and then, shortly, the $4 trillion ‘grand bargain’ collapsed. Read more in Roll Call.

Mandatory vs. Discretionary – In December, Congress and the White House came to a two-year spending plan that was supposed to lead to a temporary truce in the annual federal budget wars. Obama broke that truce, at least in the eyes of most Republicans, with a 2017 budget request that aims to use revenue not covered by that agreement to boost the budgets of several research agencies. The fiscal legerdemain is likely to trigger even more of a partisan standoff with Congress and darken an already cloudy picture for U.S. researchers who rely on federal funding. Reach more in Science.

Rich Housing – Building more luxury housing actually helps poor housing, because more demand means more supply, and more supply means prices fall…according to economists. Read more in The Washington Post.

Smoke ‘Em – Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to fight opioid abuse with pot. Read more in Vox.

Getting Over You – Psychologists reveal that, no, you’re never really over your first love. Read more in the Washington Post.

Super Delegate – What are they? And why is Bernie’s 20 point win over Hillary not really affecting the superdelegate race? Read more in Vox.

Gravity Waves – In a massive scientific breakthrough, researchers have discovered gravity waves – something that Einstein predicted in 1916. Read more in Science.

House on Science in the “National Interest”, White House Threatens to Veto

Posted on February 10, 2016February 10, 2016

The House will take up a bill today, HR 3293 – Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, that would require the National Science Foundation to show the grants it doles out to scientists are in the national interest. Similar to previous measures restricting NSF sponsored by Congressman Lamar Smith, the legislation is expected to pass.

Predictably, the White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) threatening to veto the measure on Tuesday. The SAP stated that the bill would “add nothing to accountability in federal funding for scientific research” and replace existing law with “confusing language that could cast a shadow over the value of basic research.”

Read the SAP here.

President Releases FY2017 Budget

Posted on February 9, 2016February 10, 2016

Today, President Barack Obama proposed a $4.23 trillion FY 2017 budget, which will be his last in office. Overall, the White House’s proposal sticks with the discretionary spending limits set by last year’s budget deal.

Predictably the lame-duck budget was met with dismissal by Congress. Republican appropriators are complaining that the Administration is circumventing the budget caps by leaning heavily on new mandatory funding for programs that typically would receive discretionary dollars controlled by Congress. However, the President’s budget is symbolically the beginning of the federal appropriations conversations.

Included in the request was $19 billion for cybersecurity efforts a proposed a 35 percent increase in federal funds for the next budget year to boost the nation’s ability to safeguard its computer networks, both private and public, from attacks while preserving privacy.

For the third year in a row, the President proposed his College Opportunity and Graduation Bonus. In FY17, the program would provide $547 million for colleges that do a good job graduating low-income students on time. Department officials said the proposal is an important complement to student-focused incentives like the new $300 Pell bonus for recipients who take at least 15 credits per semester. The bonus would reward institutions that improve in this area, regardless of how well they were doing in the first place.

Other items of note include:

Defense S&T is cut by more than $535 million with nearly 40% of the cuts coming from 6.1 basic research.

The budget provides $7.96 billion for the National Science Foundation, of which $7.56 is discretionary and $400 million is new mandatory funding. For discretionary, this would be a 1.3% increase, but including mandatory an increase of 6.7%, over FY 2016. All directorates, including SBE and GEO received 6 percent increases.

The Administration is is requesting $19.025 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is $300 million below FY 2016. This includes mandatory spending. The current fact sheet available doesn’t break out discretionary vs. mandatory. The Science directorate would get $5.6 billion, which is an increase of $12 million or 0.02%. Space Tech would be $827 million, an increase of 20%. Aeronautics would get $790 million, an increase of 23.4%. NASA Space Grant would receive $24 million.

NIST provided funding to expand the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) institutes by providing $42 million to launch two new institutes in 2017 and continue operations of the first Commerce led institute. The Budget also proposes an additional $1.9 billion in mandatory funding for an additional 27 institutes, completing the President’s vision for a network of 45 institutes over the next ten years.

NOAA

NOAA OAR would get $519.7 million, which would be an increase of 12.4%. NOAA Climate Research was allocated $159.1 million.
$12 million increase for investments in finding solutions to the challenge of ocean acidification. NOAA’s ocean acidification program
NOAA SeaGrant would get $68.9 million, which is $4 million below FY 2016.

The Department of Education received $69.4 billion in FY2017 for discretionary spending, an increase of roughly $1 billion from FY2016. An initial pass at the budget includes big wins for ESSA programs and supports including preschool and Head Start ($9.6 billion for Head Start, an increase of $434 million).

ED and the Administration announced previously that it was creating an enforcement unit within the Office of Federal Student Aid to respond to allegations, and the budget request includes $13.6 million specifically for FSA enforcement and oversight activities.

Pell: The Budget would see the maximum grant award for students boosted by $20, from $5,915 to $5,935, the administration is proposing an additional $2 billion for changes to encourage students to complete their degrees
FAFSA Changes: The Budget proposes to eliminate up to 30 burdensome and unnecessarily complex questions, shortening the FAFSA application substantially, and making it easier for students and families to access critical resources to pay for college.
Tax Changes: The Budget would streamline and expand education tax benefits by: 1) consolidating the Lifetime Learning Credit into an expanded AOTC; 2) exempting Pell Grants from taxation and the AOTC calculation; and 3) eliminating tax on student loan debt forgiveness, while repealing the complicated student loan interest deduction for new borrowers.

What We’re Reading This Week, February 1-5

Posted on February 5, 2016February 10, 2016

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Border Wars – Though, state institutions were founded to serve the people of their states, but in a bid to maximize tuition revenue as state support for higher education drops, they are enrolling record numbers of students from elsewhere. Read more in The Washington Post.

Computer Literate – The President has announced that he is seeking $4 billion to help states expand in an area he views as critical to young people’s success in a changing job market. Read more in The New York Times.

Hit It With Your Best Shot – In the State of the Union, Vice President Biden was charged with a moon shot-like goal of curing cancer. The Vice President explains what that will mean in Medium.

Placebo Effect – Is this cancer taskforce set up for success or is it one more presidential taskforce from an Administration that already has many of them (as have many other administrations). Read more in The Hill.

Boot Straps – Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s journey from sleeping in a vacant service station to holding a Ph.D., law license and office on Capitol Hill has become a staple of the fast-rising Arizona Democrat’s biography. And she’s telling it to anyone who will listen as she works to fortify her hold on a key swing House district that could pave her way to the Senate. Read more in The Arizona Republic.

1,000,000 Mile Club – Congress is doing less work than in previous decades, and now we can break it down with statistics. Moreover, Their absence from the capital reinforces the effects of a deepening partisan divide in recent years that has led to high-profile deadlocks over legislation previously seen as routine, according to some former lawmakers and political analysts. Under pressure to spend more time in their home constituencies, often fund-raising for campaigns, members have less time to attend debates and mingle with other lawmakers….In 2015, the first year of a two-year Congress, the House of Representatives put in 130 working days, the Reuters review found. Compared with the first years of recent Congresses, that number has declined steadily since 2007, when the House worked 153 days — the high since 1998. Read more in Reuters.