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News and updates

OMB Signals Concerns on House FY16 Interior Bill

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Due to be marked up today, the White House signaled concerns to House Appropriators about their $30.2 billion FY16 Interior-Environment spending bill. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  Director Shaun Donovan criticized the measure for the proposed cuts to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as riders to block implementation of various air and water rules.

The Interior-Environment appropriations bill funds the EPA, U.S. Forest Service, Interior Department, the Smithsonian, and Indian Health Service. Donovan criticized the measure for its “misplaced priorities” and funding levels that fall 9 percent below the President’s request as well as cuts to the Indian Health Service and Interior’s climate resilience, land management and conservation efforts.

This letter from Donovan is not the first effort the Administration has used to signal displeasure with House Appropriations bills. Donovan wrote similar letter about the House CJS measure, and the White House has issued veto threats on the NDAA and House Defense appropriations bills.

Read the OMB letter to House Appropriations here. 

FY16 Appropriations Heats Up

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Happy Monday morning from a hot and steamy DC, where the temperature and humidity are expected to rise into the uncomfortable range this week. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Also this week, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down one or more decisions today at 10am ET, the first of two batches this week. We’re awaiting potentially landmark judgments involving healthcare subsidies, gay marriage, or lethal injection. Regardless of what the court decides on the healthcare subsidies, it will certainly cause a break in regular order in Congress as they deal with the aftermath.

House appropriators will take up two contentious FY16 bills this week: Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, and Interior-Environment. And Senate appropriators will also mark up their Interior-Environment bill, as well as Homeland Security. These are bills that leaders in recent years have shied away from bringing to the floor due to their propensity for attracting highly partisan policy riders. For example, it’s been nearly six years since the Senate has taken up the Interior-Environment spending bill.

But the path forward on appropriations could be affected by what happens in the Senate, where Democrats have threatened to filibuster all spending bills that adhere to sequester budget caps and the Obama administration has threatened vetoes.

House Appropriations Committee to Consider Interior and Labor-H

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The House keeps up the pace with considering the annual 12 appropriations bills. Today the House Appropriations committee put out a notice that they would consider two bills next week.

The whole House Appropriations Committee will consider the FY2016 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill on Tuesday, June 16 at 10:15 am.

The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education subcommittee has issued a notice for a mark up of the FY16 Labor-HHS-Education (Labor-H) appropriations bill on Wednesday, June 17 at 9 am.

The House Appropriations Committee has passed seven bills out of committee this year thus far. Bills that are expected shortly are the FY16 bills for Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Finanical Services bills have yet to be considered in any capacity.

 

 

 

House Judiciary Approves HR 9 Innovation Act

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The House Judiciary Committee yesterday voted 24-8 to pass the Innovation Act (HR 9), a highly problematic patent bill that numbers  higher education associations, including AAU, APLU, COGR, AUTM, AAMC and ACE, are on record as opposing.

The group of six higher education associations have been working together on patent reform proposals currently in the house and Senate. In advance of the markup, the group issued a statement Wednesday emphasizing that HR 9 would weaken the patent system. The statement also noted that while collectively universities strongly support reducing abusive patent litigation practices, the Senate’s  PATENT Act (S 1137), which was approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, is the preferred direction. HR 9 would make it far more difficult, risky and costly for all patent holders to defend their rights in good faith, and thus seriously undermine the ability of universities to engage in technology transfer.

The bill has been quite contentious within the House. With the Senate passing its measure last week, the House is looking for a counterpoint to begin negotiations. It is unclear when HR 9 welcome to the House Floor.

House Passes FY16 Defense Appropriations Bill

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Today, the House  approved the $578.6 billion FY15 Defense appropriations bill despite Democratic objections, both from the House and White House, to using the war accounts, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, to bridge the gap between stringent BCA budget caps and the Pentagon’s spending request. The measure totals $800 million above the Administration’s request, thanks to the additional war funds.

The largely party line vote of 278 to 149 on the typically bipartisan measure (HR 2685) underscores the divide over the use of the Overseas Contingency Operations fund.

In addition, AAU has issued a statement against the measure due to the proposed cuts in basic research.