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Weekly Legislative Update
Week of September 25, 2017
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The House and Senate are both in session this week. The House will consider 10 bills under suspension of the rules, including the Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017, which would extend the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) authorization through March 31, 2018; provide tax relief for the areas affected by hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria; make it easier for private flood insurance to satisfy mandatory coverage requirements; and would extend three health programs that expire Sept. 30. For the remainder of the week, the House will vote on the Increasing Opportunity and Success for Children and Parents through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act (H.R. 2824), which would extend the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program for five years and would require grant recipients to match federal funds beginning in FY 2020; and the Control Unlawful Fugitive Felons Act of 2017 (H.R. 2792), which would prevent Social Security benefits from being paid to individuals with an arrest warrant for committing a felony or violating parole, to offset the cost of H.R. 2824.
On Monday, the Senate will vote on the nomination of William Emanuel to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, which would give Republicans a 3-2 majority on the NLRB. For the remainder of the week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) plans to bring to the floor legislation authored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to drastically change the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with only a simple majority vote of 50 GOP Senators (Vice President Mike Pence would break a 50-50 tie) by the deadline of Sept. 30, the last day of FY 2017. Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have stated that they will vote against the legislation, and Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Mike Lee (R-UT) may also vote against the bill, which, when coupled with opposition from all 48 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, would be enough to defeat the bill. The legislation would
end the Medicaid expansion in 2020 and reduce the money given to Medicaid by changing how it's allocated. The bill would also end the individual mandate to buy insurance and dismantle the structure of the ACA. Instead, it would give money to states to implement their own health care systems in the form of block grants. While the bill would require that people with pre-existing conditions have access to health insurance, it would not prohibit insurance companies from charging people with long-term health care needs more money. The bill would also provide billions of dollars more for states during the transition from the ACA and as a contingency fund. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to come out with a limited analysis of the legislation on Monday.
On Tuesday, Republicans in Alabama will vote in a special GOP U.S. Senate primary runoff election between incumbent Sen. Luther Strange and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, for the Senate seat previously held by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The winner will face off on December 12 against Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. Attorney. On Wednesday, the Republican tax reform blueprint is scheduled to be released, which is expected to bring the corporate tax rate down to 20 percent (down from the current top corporate tax rate of 38.9 percent);
call for condensing individual tax brackets from seven to three, with the highest rate at 35 percent (down from the current 39.6 percent); and propose eliminating the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.
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Senate Passes FY 2018 NDAA
On September 18, the Senate passed, by a vote of
89-8, the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (
H.R. 2810), which authorizes funding to equip, supply, and train troops and support military families.
Overall, the FY 2018 NDAA includes $610.87 billion in discretionary spending for defense base budget requirements and $60.2 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations. It also includes $21 billion for national security programs of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Now that separate versions of the NDAA have been approved by both the Senate and House, both houses of Congress will come together for a conference committee to resolve differences between the bills, before sending a single conference report back to both chambers to be voted on, and then sending the legislation to the President to be signed into law.
Read more...
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Senate Confirms Noel Francisco as Solicitor General
On September 19, the Senate voted
50-47 to confirm Noel Francisco as the 47th Solicitor General of the United States, the third-highest-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice who represents the U.S. federal government before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read more...
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Trump Issues New Travel Ban for Eight Countries
On September 24, President Donald Trump issued a
Presidential Proclamation which restricts travelers from an expanded list of countries. The new Proclamation
, which Trump said is needed to screen out terrorist or public safety threats, indefinitely restricts individuals traveling into the U.S. from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea; certain government officials from Venezuela will also be barred.
Trump's March 6
temporary travel ban
, which replaced another ban from January and expired on Sept. 24, targeted six Muslim-majority countries,
Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan
. It sparked international outrage and was quickly blocked by federal courts as unconstitutional discrimination or a violation of immigration law. In June, the Supreme Court allowed a limited version of the ban to go ahead while the justices examine its legality.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments over the original travel ban on Oct. 10, including whether it discriminated against Muslims, however, the new proclamation could lead the high court to skip deciding the case altogether.
The restrictions and limitations of the new Proclamation will take full effect on October 18, 2017.
Read more...
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Trump Signs Executive Order Imposing Sanctions on North Korea
On September 21, President Trump signed
Executive Order (E.O.) 13811 which authorizes additional sanctions against North Korea by targeting
individuals, companies and financial institutions that do business with what he called "this criminal rogue regime." Read more...
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Trump Announces Nominations to Administrative Posts
On September 21, the White House
announced President Donald Trump's
intent to nominate seven individuals last week, including:
- Dana Baiocco to be Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission for a 7-year term beginning October 27, 2017.
On September 22, the White House also announced Trump's intent to nominate four U.S. Attorneys who will serve as the chief Federal law enforcement officer within his or her Federal judicial district and
"who share the President's vision for 'Making America Safe Again'":
- Erin Cox to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas;
- Duane Kees to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas;
- Matthew Krueger to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin; and
- Christina Nolan to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont.
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