The NATaT Board of Directors will be in Washington, D.C. this week for a board meeting and advocacy day on Capitol Hill. Board members will present to Members of Congress NATaT's 2016 Federal Platform, and discuss in detail some of the priorities included in that platform. These meetings will set the stage for the annual fly-in in April.

 

The House and Senate are both in session this week. The House will vote on 13 bills under suspension of the rules on Tuesday and Wednesday, including the "Directing Dollars to Disaster Relief Act of 2015" (S. 2109), which would require FEMA to develop a cost-reduction plan for administrative expenses related to major disaster assistance. For the remainder of the week, the House will vote on (1) the "Fraudulent Joinder Prevention Act of 2015" (H.R. 3624), which would amend certain procedures governing the relationship between state and federal courts; and (2) the "Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015" (H.R. 2406), which would make revisions to a number of hunting, fishing, and recreation shooting programs. The Senate could consider the "Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015" ( S. 2012 ) and the "Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015" ( S. 524 ), which would authorize $250 million for combating drug addiction and treating overdoses.

 

The Supreme Court nomination fight will likely dominate the Senate's first week back since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Most Senate Republicans are backing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) approach to hold off on filling the vacancy until the next president takes office. President Obama has told congressional leaders he plans to pick a successor soon. Reid predicts that McConnell "will have to cave in" to public demand and have the Senate hold a confirmation hearing and floor vote. Judiciary Committee Chairman  Chuck Grassley  (R-IA), who hasn't ruled out hearings, plans to discuss strategy this week with Republican committee members and McConnell. The standoff has the potential to shut down  the Senate's regular operations, although leadership aides from both parties have demurred when asked if their caucuses would resort to parliamentary warfare in the form of constant filibusters.  

 

House lawmakers will continue to deliberate on passing a budget. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has told fiscal hawks that they will have to swallow the increased spending levels reached in last fall's budget deal, which more than two-thirds of House Republicans voted against. But some Republicans, who are upset with this year's budget process, are demanding offsets on mandatory spending in exchange for codifying last fall's budget deal. Speaker Ryan told members before the most recent recess that he saw no path forward on a budget that would allow appropriations bills to move forward other than to stick to elevated funding levels set by the budget agreement. House Republicans will have to move briskly to keep to their budget timetable. House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) presented a draft FY 2017 budget to House Republicans on Monday, and will hold a markup of the budget during the first week of March. The draft budget would maintain spending levels from last fall's budget deal, while the Budget Committee and the full House are promising to hold votes on deficit-reducing measures sometime this year. 

 

This week will be busy for federal agencies, with many federal officials scheduled to testify before House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on President Obama's FY 2017 budget request and appropriations. Several of Obama's Cabinet members, including Secretary of State  John Kerry , Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Attorney General Loretta Lynch , Homeland Security Secretary  Jeh Johnson, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, and Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, will testify on Capitol Hill about their agencies' fiscal 2017 budget requests.