NATaT Weekly Legislative Update, October 17, 2016

Weekly Legislative Update

Week of October 17, 2016

Congressional Outlook

Week of October 17th

The House and Senate are in recess for four more weeks, with the House returning November 14 and the Senate returning November 15. The only must-pass item on the agenda for the remainder of the 114th Congress is wrapping up the 11 remaining appropriations bills to fund federal government agencies and programs for the balance of the 2017 fiscal year (i.e., through Sept. 30, 2017), in order to avert a government shutdown. This will likely be done through an omnibus, but if an agreement can't be reached on a massive spending package, another Continuing Resolution (CR) may be necessary. The dynamics of those negotiations likely rest heavily on the outcome of the November elections. On Nov. 15, the Senate is scheduled to take a vote on the Gold Star Families Voices Act (H.R. 4511), which the House passed by voice vote on September 6, and which would expand the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project (VHP) to include family members of veterans who died as a result of their service or who are missing in action.

There are numerous other issues Congress will consider when it returns for the four-week "lame-duck" session in November and December, including (1) the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016 House-Senate Conference Committee (H.R. 5303/S. 2848); (2) the Energy Policy Modernization Act House-Senate Conference Committee ( S. 2012); (3) the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) House-Senate Conference Committee (H.R. 4909/ S. 2943); (4) the 21st Century Cures Act ( H.R. 6); (5) a tax extenders package for more than 30 tax provisions set to expire on Dec. 31, 2016, including those ranging from renewable energy and energy conservation, to provisions affecting homeowners and their mortgages, rum producers, and owners of race tracks and race horses; (6) additional emergency aid for states negatively impacted by severe flooding in 2016 and funding for opioid addiction prevention; (7) a package of bills to overhaul the criminal justice system; and (8) various foreign policy issues, including extending sanctions authorities on Iran, which expire on Dec. 31, 2016, and amending the newly passed Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows the family members of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts.

The third and final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump, moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, will take place on Wednesday, October 19 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV from 9-10:30pm EST. There are 21 days until Election Day.

Week in Review

President Obama Signs Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act Into Law

On October 14, President Obama signed the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act ( S. 246) into law, which will create an 11-member Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children, which is tasked with undertaking a comprehensive study of federal, state, local, and tribal programs that serve Native children, and making recommendations on how those programs could be improved. The bill, introduced by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) last year, was passed by the House by voice vote on September 12, 2016 and by the Senate by Unanimous Consent on September 29. The Commission will issue a report to address a series of challenges currently facing Native children and a Native Children Subcommittee will also provide advice to the Commission. The Commission's report will address how to achieve:

Better Use of Existing Resources - The Commission will identify ways to streamline current federal, state, and local programs to be more effective and give tribes greater flexibility to devise programs for their communities in the spirit of self-determination and allow government agencies to redirect resources to the areas of most need;
Increased Coordination - The Commission will seek to improve coordination of existing programs benefitting Native children. The federal government houses programs across numerous different agencies, yet these programs too often do not work together;
Measurable Outcomes - The Commission will recommend measures to determine the wellbeing of Native children, and use these measurements to propose short-term, mid-term, and long-term national policy goals;
Stronger Data - The Commission will seek to develop better data collection methods. Too often Native children are left out of the conversation because existing data collection, reporting, and analysis practices exclude them;
Stronger Private Sector Partnerships - The Commission will seek to identify obstacles to public-private partnerships in Native communities; and
Implementation of Best Practices - The Commission will identify and highlight successful models that can be adopted in Native communities.

Obama Administration Hosts White House Frontiers Conference, Releases Fact Sheet on "Harnessing the Possibilities of Science, Technology, and Innovation"

On October 13, the Obama Administration hosted a first of its kind day-long White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania " to encourage Americans to imagine our Nation and the world in 50 years and beyond, and to explore America's potential to broaden participation and advance towards the frontiers that will make the world healthier, more prosperous, more equitable, and more secure." The conference, co-hosted by the White House, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University, br ought together researchers, business leaders, technologists, philanthropists, local innovators, and students who are the change-makers of tomorrow on these five frontiers.

The Administration opened the conference with more than $300 million in announcements that exemplify the critical roles that Federal investments, innovative policymaking, and multi-sector collaboration play in seeding prosperity:

$70 million in new National Institutes of Health (NIH) investments to help researchers better understand the brain and, ultimately, uncover the mysteries that hold the key to future scientific breakthroughs in areas such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, depression, and traumatic brain injury;
$16 million and four new partners within the Precision Medicine Initiative national research study, doubling the number of regional medical health care organizations that will enroll individuals into the large scale health study and push the boundaries of medical care and research innovation;
$165 million in public and private funds to support cities in using technology and data to tackle critical quality-of-life challenges, such as traffic congestion;
Harnessing the power of data to improve the U.S. criminal justice system, announcing that the Police Data Initiative and the Data-Driven Justice Initiative have each grown to over 100 communities nationwide;
Releasing a White House report on preparing for the future of artificial intelligence (AI), outlining the issues that society will have to grapple with to unlock the possibilities of AI, and a companion strategic plan for research and development of AI;
New steps to develop technology-such as deep-space habitats-to help meet the President's goal of sending a human mission to Mars by the 2030s;
$50 million in Federal funds to fuel a revolution in small-satellite technology that could provide capabilities such as ubiquitous high-speed Internet connectivity and continuously updated imagery of the Earth; and
A new space-weather Executive Order to coordinate efforts to prepare the Nation for space-weather events.