Today, the Senate finished its debate and votes on amendments to S. 1177, the Every Child Achieves Act, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In total, of the 79 amendments that were voted on, 66 were adopted and 13 failed.
The Senate has passed a bipartisan overhaul of the long-expired No Child Left Behind education law by a vote of 81-17.
The bill would continue to require annual testing in reading and math but restores power over low-performing schools back to states.
The partisan House-passed version, which passed earlier this month, goes to an extreme that Democrats and the White House have condemned. The most contentious point of the House version is that it would allow federal dollars to follow students to another public school of their choice.
To devise a version that can become law, lawmakers will have to satisfy White House concerns about the bill’s protections for poor and minority students and House GOP demands that the bill diminish the federal role in education.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats are already are blaming each other for causing the next government shutdown, which won’t even happen for another 80 days (October 1st). That may seem like plenty of time for lawmakers to work through their differences and approve appropriations bills to keep the federal government running, but the news from Capitol Hill today is not to expect any more appropriations bills to make it through the House chamber until Republicans and Democrats work out issues on the Confederate flag. That’s right. The Confederate flag.
Things aren’t much better in the Senate where Democrats have threatened to block all spending bills until Republicans agree to a deal to lift the spending caps and end the threat of sequestration (across-the-board cuts).
So far the House has approved six of their twelve annual spending bills, with the remaining six bills approved by committee and awaiting floor action. They were likely on track to approve all twelve bills before the end of September before the Confederate flag flap. The Senate has not been moving quite as quickly, and is now at a dead stop. They not approved any of their twelve bills, and have moved only five through committee. Proposed bills and report language can be accessed here.
The White House’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shaun Donovan, and OSTP Director, John Holdren, sent their annual joint FY2017 priorities memo to the science agency heads.
The memo urges agency leaders to take the priorities into consideration as they begin to prepare their FY2017 budget proposals for OMB. Per the memo, “Agency proposals aligned with multi-agency R&D priorities and demonstrating interagency coordination are more likely to be prioritized in FY2017 Budget deliberations.”
The House has pulled their FY16 Interior Appropriations bill amid controversy of a Confederate flag amendment. The House has previously considered and passed three amendments restricting funding for federal lands displaying the Confederate flag. Due to Republican concerns these restrictions might impose, an additional amendment was proposed to allow funding on federally owned park land displaying the Confederate flag. The crux of the issue: Civil War battle fields, the bulk of which are now federal park land and have memorials and cemeteries headstones with the flag on them. The bill did not have the votes to pass the House without the new amendment that allowed display of the Confederate flag on federal lands in some instances. Further, it was unclear that the bill had the votes to pass if the amendment was not included.
The bill was first considered but not finished before the July 4th Recess. It is unclear how the bill will or can move forward.
Here’s a selection of article the Federal Relations team is reading this week.
Takes a Village – Because politics makes strange bedfellows, David Brock, the conservative reporter who pushed Paula Jones into the media spot light, is now integral to Hillary’s run as part of Clinton’s shadow campaign, Having seen the light and switching teams to become a Dem, Brock now guides a network of pro-Clinton ‘super PACs,’ mega-donors and opposition researchers via Media Matters, his decade-old nonprofit group that meticulously monitors and counters conservative media. Read more at the LA Times.
Capitol under construction 1863.
21 Million – OPM has revised the number of individuals who had their information stolen during the second hack. The number first reported was 4.5 million, which is now being revealed to be 21 million. Those who had their information stolen are not limited to applicants for federal positions, but to spouses and family members. The hack apparently collected information going back for 15 years. Read more at USA Today.
All About the $$$ – Republicans are using the federal appropriations process to undermine Obama’s legislative and policy priorities. Not a new idea or method, but the New York Times has a story about how it’s fairing this year.
Not Really – In the hotly contested patent reform bills going around Capitol Hill, a recent essay on the Senate’s PATENT Act reveals that it won’t actually help the IP offices at Iowa or Iowa State even though Senator Grassley’s (R-IA) wrote the bill. Read more at IP Watchdog.
GO BOOM!!! – With the federal fiscal agreement due in short order (Sept 30), Republicans and Democrats are locked in a battle of wills to influence the final outcome of the appropriations process and, hopefully, avoid a continuing resolution or another shutdown. Read more at The Hill.
Doh! – Donald Trump has been asked to tone it down by the GOP for the good of the GOP. In true Trump style, Donald doubled down on recent comments. Read more in the Washington Post. Additionally, Trump says that the RNC party chair called to congratulate him. Read more in the New York Times.
