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Weekly Legislative Update
Week of October 23, 2017
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The House and Senate are in session this week. The House will vote on 13 bills under suspension of the rules, including the Impeding North Korea's Access to Finance Act of 2017 (H.R. 3898), which imposes secondary financial sanctions on North Korea; and the Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act (H.R. 1698), which expands sanctions against Iran for its ballistic missile program. For the remainder of the week, the House will vote on the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017 (H.R. 732), which would prevent the federal government from using settlement money from civil cases for purposes other than direct victim compensation or remediation; the Sunshine for Regulations and Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2017 (H.R. 469), which would modify the process used to develop consent decrees and settlement agreements that require federal agencies to take specified regulatory actions; and the Senate-passed FY 2018 Budget Resolution (H. Con. Res. 71), which includes reconciliation instructions to enable Republicans to bypass the Senate's 60-vote threshold to limit debate-crucial for advancing a Republican plan to cut taxes $1.5 trillion over 10 years without Democratic votes.
The Senate will vote on the $36.5 billion House-passed Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2017 (H.R. 2266), which provides emergency funding for hurricane and wildfire relief and recovery, including $18.7 billion for FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, $576.5 million for wildfire-fighting efforts, and $16 billion in debt relief for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), in order for the NFIP to continue paying insurance claims to owners of property damaged by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate plus other flooding.
President Trump is expected to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to speak with Senate Republicans at their weekly policy lunch. Trump's first visit to the Capitol to address Senate Republicans comes as GOP lawmakers move forward with plans to overhaul the tax code. Trump has also said that he will declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency this week. U.S. Northern District of California Judge Vince Chhabria said he plans to issue a ruling this week in a case brought by 19 states requesting that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services continue Cost-Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments to insurance companies. The case was filed after Trump said the payments would be ended.
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Senate Passes FY 2018 Budget Resolution
On October 19, the Senate passed, by a vote of
51-49, their amended version of the FY 2018 Budget Resolution (
H. Con. Res. 71); all 48 Senate Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against the budget. The House is expected to pass this budget during the week of Oct. 23.
The spending blueprint is key to Republicans' efforts to pass tax reform because it includes instructions that will allow the plan to avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
The budget would allow the Senate GOP's tax plan to add up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade, a proposal that has raised concerns with fiscal hawks in the GOP. Its instructions call for the Senate Finance Committee to report a tax bill by Nov. 13, although this deadline is non-binding.
The budget also outlines the Senate GOP's political vision. It maintains spending at FY 2017 levels for the year, but would then cut non-defense spending in subsequent years, leading to a $106 billion cut in 2027. It would also allow defense levels to continue rising at their current rates, reaching $684 billion at the end of a decade. The budget also proposes $473 billion in cuts to Medicare's baseline spending over a decade and about $1 trillion from Medicaid, though those provisions are not enforceable without additional legislation. The final discretionary spending levels that will fund the government in FY 2018 will still have to be negotiated between Congressional Republicans, Democrats and the White House ahead of a Dec. 8 deadline. Failure to reach an agreement or pass a stopgap measure by then would lead to a federal government shutdown. Read more...
The Senate, leading up to a final vote on the budget, considered 32 amendments, approving 13 and rejecting 19:
Approved
:
- Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) amendment, agreed to by a vote of 89-9: establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting Medicare and Medicaid;
- Sen. Dean Heller's (R-NV) amendment, agreed to by a vote of 98-0: calls for providing tax relief to American families with children to provide them with more money in their paychecks to make ends meet;
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito's (R-WV) amendment, agreed to by a vote of 52-47: calls for helping provide tax relief to middle-class Americans by reducing deductibility, for federal tax purposes, of federal deductions, such as the state and local tax deduction which disproportionally favors high-income individuals;
- Sen. Jeff Flake's (R-AZ) amendment, agreed to by a vote of 98-0: calls for making the American tax system simpler and fairer;
- Sen. Tom Udall's (D-NM) amendment, agreed to by a vote of 58-41: calls for creating a deficit neutral reserve fund for a permanent, mandatory Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program;
- Sen. Mike Enzi's (R-WY)amendment, agreed to by a vote of 52-48: regarding budget enforcement;
- Sen. Susan Collins' (R-ME) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: calls for providing tax relief to small businesses and to include provisions to prevent upper-income taxpayers from sheltering income from taxation at the appropriate rate;
- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: calls for establishing a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to tax cuts for working American families relating to increasing per-child federal tax relief, which may include amending the child tax credit;
- Sen. Rob Portman's (R-OH) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: calls for providing for an international tax system that provides or enhances incentives for businesses to invest in America, generate American jobs, retain American jobs, and return jobs to America;
- Sen. Joe Donnelly's (D-IN) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: creates a point of order against legislation that allows companies that have outsourced jobs to foreign countries to benefit from any tax breaks;
- Sen. Deb Fischer's (R-NE) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: calls for providing tax relief to American workers, families, and job creators in a manner which maintains the progressivity of the tax system by maintaining or raising the share of taxes paid by high income taxpayers;
- Sen. David Perdue's (R-GA) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to significantly improving the budget process; and
- Sen. Mike Enzi's (R-WY) amendment, agreed to by voice vote: substitute text of the Senate Budget Committee's S. Con. Res. 25.
Rejected
:
- Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-51: provides additional resources to restore the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid paid for by reducing the tax breaks for the wealthy;
- Sen. Bill Nelson's (D-FL) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-51: provides additional resources to restore the $473 billion in cuts to Medicare paid for by closing special interest tax loopholes;
- Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) amendment, rejected by a vote of 46-52: ensures that there are no tax cuts for the top 1 percent of Americans;
- Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-OR) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-52: strikes the reconciliation instructions relating to tax reform;
- Sen. Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-52: creates a point of order against legislation that repeals or limits the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction;
- Sen. Mark Warner's (D-VA) amendment, rejected by a vote 47-52: strikes the Senate pay-as-you-go exemption for tax cut reconciliation legislation and the exception to rules preventing any legislation from increasing the deficit over the short-term;
- Sen. Tammy Baldwin's (D-WI) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-51: prohibits reconciliation legislation that would increase the deficit or reduce a surplus;
- Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's (D-ND) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-51: creates a point of order against legislation that would increase taxes on taxpayers whose annual income is below $250,000;
- Sen. Sherrod Brown's (D-OH) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-51: establishes a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to providing tax benefits to patriot employers that invest in American jobs and provide fair pay and benefits to workers;
- Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) amendment, rejected by a vote of 4-94: modifies reconciliation instructions to reduce the deficit;
- Sen. Ben Cardin's (D-MD) amendment, rejected by a vote of 47-52: creates a point of order against legislation that includes deficit-financed tax cuts;
- Sen. Tim Kaine's (D-VA) amendment, rejected by a vote of 48-51: modifies section 4111 to reinstate and strengthen a prohibition on voting on legislation without a Congressional Budget Office score;
- Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) amendment, rejected by a vote of 5-95: reduces discretionary spending by $43 billion;
- Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) amendment, rejected by a vote of 32-67: expands the deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the repeal of provisions of title I of the Affordable Care Act (ACA);
- Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) amendment, rejected by a vote of 33-66: provides for reconciliation instructions to the relevant committees for the purpose of repealing and replacing the ACA;
- Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) amendment, rejected by a vote of 50-50: modifies a deficit neutral reserve fund relating to public land and the environment to address making payments under the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program equivalent to the property tax revenue that would be due to a State or local government if the State or local government owned the land;
- Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) amendment, rejected by a vote of 7-93: increases the Senate Finance Committee reconciliation instruction from $1.5 trillion over 10 years to $2.5 trillion over 10 years;
- Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) amendment, rejected by a vote of 49-51: establishes a spending-neutral reserve fund relating to prohibiting federal regulation of entirely intrastate species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973; and
- Sen. Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) amendment, rejected by a vote of 48-52: strikes the reconciliation instructions for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to prevent oil and gas development within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Senate Confirms U.S. Ambassador to Holy See, Special Counsel, and Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
On October 16, the Senate confirmed, by a vote of
70-23, Callista Gingrich to be U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, and, by voice vote, Henry Kerner to be Special Counsel for a five-year term in the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose primary
mission is the safeguarding of the merit system in federal employment by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for "whistleblowing."
On October 17, the Senate confirmed, by a vote of
79-17
, David Trachtenberg to be Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,
the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the
Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters concerning the formation of national security and defense policy. Read more
here
,
here
and
here
.
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Senate Passes Child Protection Improvements Act
On October 16, the Senate passed, by Unanimous Consent, the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2017 (
S. 705), which
amends the National Child Protection Act of 1993 to establish a national criminal history background check system and criminal history review program for organizations that serve children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities.
Specifically, the bill amends the National Child Protection Act of 1993 to do the following:
- Ensure organizations that serve children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities have access to FBI fingerprint background checks;
- Helps ensure that the cost of background checks are reasonable; and
- Identifies criteria offenses that will result in a determination that a volunteer may not be suitable to serve a vulnerable population.
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Trump Signs Three Bills Into Law
On October 18, President Trump
signed the following three bills into law:
- S. 178, the "Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act," which establishes certain requirements for the Department of Justice with respect to investigating and prosecuting elder abuse crimes; and amends Federal criminal law to expand telemarketing fraud to include "email marketing" fraud;
- S. 652, the "Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2017," which reauthorizes and modifies two Department of Health and Human Services programs for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment regarding deaf and hard-of-hearing newborns, infants, and young children; and
- H.R. 1117, which requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency to submit a report to the Congress on plans to improve the administration of disaster assistance during the response to an emergency or disaster.
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Trump Signs Executive Order Allowing Air Force to Recall Up to 1,000 Retired Pilots
On October 20, President Trump signed Executive Order (E.O.) 13814 which allows the U.S. Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired aviators for active duty. E.O. 13814 could help ease the combat pilot shortage in the force and improve military readiness as the Trump Administration steps up its new Afghanistan war strategy to defeat the Taliban and other terrorists. The new strategy in the 16-year-old war, unveiled in August by Trump, includes additional U.S. troops going to Afghanistan as well as increased U.S. air support for the
Afghan military. E.O. 13814 amends emergency powers signed by President George W. Bush in the days after
the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The E.O. gives Defense Secretary James Mattis "additional authorities to recall retired aviation officers regardless of certain limitations on status, period of service, and numbers to mitigate the Air Force's acute shortage of pilots."
Read more...
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Two Federal Judges Block Trump Travel Ban 3.0
On October 17, U.S. District Judge for the District of Hawaii Derrick K. Watson partially blocked President Trump's third attempt to restrict entry into the U.S. for citizens of certain countries, initiated on Sept. 24 by
Presidential Proclamation. The newest version of the travel ban was due to go into effect on Oct. 18. In his ruling, Watson wrote that the third version of the ban, like those before it, "lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States,'" evidence that he says would be necessary for the ban to be enforceable. As a result, he issued a temporary restraining order that will keep the ban from being enforced for six of the eight named countries - the six majority-Muslim nations of Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Chad. North Korea and Venezuela, which were added in the most recent version of the ban, are not affected by the ruling, and the restrictions on travel from those countries can go into effect. Additionally, on Oct. 18, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit Judge Theodore D. Chuang blocked the Trump Administration from enforcing the travel ban on people with a "bona fide" tie to the U.S. from the six Muslim-majority nations, deciding that the latest version of the travel ban effectively amounted to an unconstitutional Muslim ban.
On Oct. 20, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its formal notice of appeal to Judge Chuang's decision to block the Trump Administration from enforcing its latest travel ban in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. DOJ also asked the 4th Circuit to stay Judge Chuang's ruling blocking the ban on an expedited timetable - with the last filings due on that issue Oct. 26. DOJ lawyers argued that Judge Chuang was "wrong," and that his ruling "threatens to disable the President permanently from addressing immigration-related national-security risks in countries that pose the greatest concern." DOJ has not yet filed a notice of appeal in the Hawaii case. To get the ban fully into effect, DOJ will have to run the table - winning in both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit for the Maryland case and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit for the Hawaii case. Both appellate courts ruled against the Trump Administration in legal disputes over the second version of Trump's travel ban. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, vacated the 4th Circuit precedent in that case after a key portion of the previous ban expired, and it is possible the same fate could befall the 9th Circuit precedent after Oct. 24, when another portion of the ban dealing with refugees ends.
Read more...
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Trump Announces Nominees to Key Administration Positions
Last week, President Trump formally sent 15 nominations to the Senate for consideration:
- Kirstjen Nielsen to be Secretary of Homeland Security;
- Kathleen Hartnett White to be a Member and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality;
- Barry Myers to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere;
- Alex Beehler to be an Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy, Installations, and Environment;
- Stephen Akard to be Director General of the Foreign Service;
- Brock Bierman to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development;
- John Dupuy to be Inspector General, Office of Personnel Management;
- Gail Ennis to be Inspector General, Social Security Administration;
- James Ho to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit;
- James McPherson to be General Counsel of the Department of the Army;
- Yleem Poblete to be an Assistant Secretary of State, Verification and Compliance;
- John Rood to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
- Preston Rutledge to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration;
- Jon Rychalski to be Chief Financial Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs; and
- Hannibal Ware to be Inspector General, Small Business Administration.
Trump also announced his intent to nominate 5 key positions in his Administration, including:
- Tara Sweeney to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Indian Affairs;
- Kenneth Braithwaite to be U.S. Ambassador to Norway;
- Rohit Chopra to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission for the remainder of a seven-year term expiring September 25, 2019;
- Joseph Simons to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission for a seven-year term beginning September 26, 2017, and upon confirmation, designated Chairman; and
- Patricia Greene to be the Director of the Women's Bureau, Department of Labor.
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