One Step At A Time

Posted on October 31, 2019

After having agreed to take it up late last week, the Senate passed this afternoon a four-bill appropriations package by a vote of 84 – 9. The bundle, a Senate substitute to a House-passed bill, includes the following FY2020 funding bills: Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; Interior; and Transportation – Housing and Urban Development. This represents the first four spending bills passed by the Senate for the current fiscal year, which started October 1.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped that the passage of the first bundle would led to momentum to bring up a second package of bills that would include, among others, the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures. The Democrats have continuously objected to the two bills moving because of the DOD funds that would be used to build a Southern wall and fights over language on abortion in and the perceived lack of enough funding for the Labor-HHS bill. After the Senate agreed to the first four bills, it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to get cloture to move forward on the second set of bills. The vote was 51 -41.

Although the Senate has now passed four appropriations bills, there still is no agreement between the two chambers on how much funding is available overall for FY2020. The top line must be agreed to first before compromises on individual bills can be reached.

HEA Bill Finally Clears Committee

Posted on October 31, 2019

The House Education and Labor Committee returned this morning for a third day of markup to finally approve the bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). It was reported out by a vote of 28 to 22. Approximately five dozen amendments were considered during the consideration of the legislation.

The committee Democrats issued the following press release after the committee passage. Not surprisingly, the committee Republicans had a different take on the HEA measure.

The texts of the amendments offered during the markup are available here.

Even though the bill has emerged from committee, if and when it moves to the floor for consideration by the full House remains uncertain.

House Committee Still Working on HEA

Posted on October 30, 2019

Having lasted two days so far, the House Education and Labor Committee is still in the process of marking up the Democratic version of a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The committee is currently in recess, allowing members to vote on bills being considered on the floor.

By the time the session concludes, the committee will have entertained approximately 60 amendments.

We will follow up with further details after the conclusion of the markup.

House Ed & Labor Marks Up HEA

Posted on October 29, 2019October 29, 2019

The House Education and Labor Committee is scheduled to mark up this morning the HEA reauthorization legislation that was introduced approximately two weeks ago. Yesterday, an amendment to the bill that would essentially serve as the substitute to the original at the markup session was filed.

We expect the markup to be fairly partisan, given the nature of the bill. We will provide further updates.

Cloture Filed on Appropriations Measure

Posted on October 29, 2019October 29, 2019

Last night, Senator McConnell filed cloture last night on a motion to proceed to H.R. 2740, which you may recall is the most expansive/expensive of all the spending packages and includes Labor-HHS, Defense, State/Foreign Ops, and Energy and Water. A successful vote on Wednesday means that the Senate floor debate could begin on this bill with new text from the Senate Republicans. The consideration would not be without a fight from Senate Democrats who want more of their priorities included in the bill and higher spending numbers for the Labor-HHS bill.