Weekly Legislative Update
 Week of July 25, 2016
  
Congressional Outlook

Week of July 25th

The House and Senate are in summer recess for seven weeks until Tuesday, September 6. The Democratic National Convention is taking place from July 25-28 in Philadelphia, PA this week, where Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) will be officially nominated as the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominee. 
 
Expect the standoff over Zika funding and gun control to resume when Congress reconvenes in September. Lawmakers will also inevitably have to pass a stopgap measure by September 30, in order to stave off a government shutdown. So far this year, the House has passed five of the 12 annual spending bills and the Senate has passed three of the 12 annual spending bills. Top Senate Republicans and Democrats are already at odds over the length of the continuing resolution (CR), with some lawmakers preferring the CR to run into December 2016 and others preferring it last until March 2017, under a new Congress and President.    
 
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said he plans to have the House take up a series of six bills to overhaul the criminal justice system when the House returns in September. On September 6, the Senate will resume consideration of the spending bill that includes funding for Zika, in addition to the FY 2017 Defense Appropriations bill (S. 3000). This fall, Congress will also likely consider the House-Senate conference report for the "Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016" (S. 2012), the House-Senate conference report for the $602 billion FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (S. 2943), the 2016 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA),  the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland to be an Associate Justice, and numerous other legislative items before the 114th Congress concludes on December 16.
Week in Review

President Obama Signs Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
  
On July 22, President Obama  signed  the "Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016" ( S. 524 ) into law, which addresses the opioid addiction crisis unfolding throughout the country through new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant programs to prevent and treat addiction, and support those in recovery. The Senate passed the bill on July 13 by a vote of  92-2  and the House passed the bill on July 8 by a vote of  407-5 . CARA  authorizes the U.S. Attorney General and the HHS Secretary to award grants to states, localities, and Indian tribes to address the national epidemics of addiction to heroin and prescription opioids, and makes other changes to federal law to combat opioid addiction and abuse. While CARA authorizes several new federal grant programs, it does not appropriate any new funding. Congressional Republicans have said that the opioid programs should be funded through the traditional appropriations process. Indeed, House and Senate appropriators have approved or introduced various opioid spending provisions for FY 2017, including: between $103-132 million within the Commerce-Justice-Science FY 2017 Appropriations bills for DOJ enforcement, prevention and treatment programs and between $261-581 million within the Labor-HHS-Education FY 2017 Appropriations bills for HHS opioid programs.
  
The White House issued a  statement on President Obama signing CARA into law, stating that  "[t]his legislation includes some modest steps to address the opioid epidemic. Given the scope of this crisis, some action is better than none. However, I am deeply disappointed that Republicans failed to provide any real resources for those seeking addiction treatment to get the care that they need. In fact, they blocked efforts by Democrats to include $920 million in treatment funding. [...] My Administration has been doing everything we can to increase access to treatment, and I'm going to continue fighting to secure the funding families desperately need. In recent days, the law enforcement community, advocates, physicians, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle have also joined in this call. Now, it's up to Republicans to finish the job and provide adequate funding to deal with this public health crisis. That's what the American people deserve." A three-page summary of CARA, provided by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is available  here and the House-Senate Conference Committee's Joint Explanatory Statement for the Report is available  hereRead more...
President Obama Signs POLICE Act Into Law

On July 22, President Obama signed the "Protecting Our Lives by Initiating COPS Expansion (POLICE) Act of 2016" ( S. 2840 ), which would revise the rules of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) to allow first responders to use grants received through the program for active shooter response training. The House passed the bill on July 12 by unanimous consent and the Senate passed the bill by voice vote on May 18. The bill is supported by the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National District Attorneys Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major County Sheriffs Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Department of Justice's VALOR program. Read more...
Congressional Schedule

There are no scheduled hearings this week as the House and Senate are in recess.