Weekly Legislative Update
 Week of May 9, 2016
  
Congressional Outlook

Week of May 9th 
 
The House and Senate are in session this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will vote on 21 bills under suspension of the rules, including: the "Opioid Program Evaluation (OPEN) Act" (H.R. 5052), which would require DOJ and HHS to work with the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the effectiveness of federal grant programs relating to opioid abuse, collect information from grant recipients and share it with the public; and the "Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2015" (S. 125), which would reauthorize, at a level of $25 million annually through FY 2020, the DOJ grant program that supports local purchases of bulletproof vests or other body armor for law enforcement. For the remainder of the week, the House will be voting on two additional opioid-related bills, including the "Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016" (H.R. 5046), which would authorize DOJ grants of $103 million a year, for the next five fiscal years, to states and local governments to respond to the opioid addiction crisis and which would fund law enforcement, prevention and treatment programs. The House is also scheduled to consider an as-yet-unreleased substitute to the Senate-passed opioid bill, the "Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016" (S. 524), as well as a motion to send the bill to conference.
 
On Monday, the Senate is scheduled to vote, for the third time, on limiting debate on a substitute amendment to the $37.5 billion FY 2017 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill (S. 2804) in order to advance it for a final vote. Senate Democrats have twice defeated previous efforts to limit debate as a way to prevent Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)  from offering an amendment to bar government funds from being used to purchase heavy water from Iran. The White House has warned that President Obama would veto legislation containing the Cotton amendment. If cloture fails a third time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is likely to stay on the bill to allow Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman   Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Cotton to continue discussing how to dispose of Cotton's Iran amendment, which Democrats say would undermine implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement. Sen. McConnell is also likely to file cloture on the motion to proceed to a minibus appropriations measure that would combine the FY 2017 Transportation-HUD ( S. 2844) and Military Construction-VA ( S. 2806) Appropriations bills, which may be the vehicle for $1.1 billion in emergency Zika funding.  
 
House GOP lawmakers plan to introduce  a new debt aid package for Puerto Rico   on Wednesday , and the House Natural Resources Committee is expected to mark up the measure the following week, giving lawmakers more time to review the bill. The legislation will contain minor changes to the current measure, the "Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act" ( H.R. 4900), including clarifying language on the legal and constitutional prioritization of creditors, as well as the fiscal oversight board's role in preserving that lineup.
Week in Review

President Obama Visits Flint, Michigan to Discuss Water Crisis
 
On May 4, President Obama visited Flint, Michigan to discuss the water crisis there. President Obama  vowed federal support for Flint residents and said government officials at all levels should have prevented Flint's water supply from being contaminated with lead. In his first visit to the city since the water crisis began, President Obama received updates from local officials and residents, made a show of drinking filtered tap water, and told a crowd of about 1,000 people at a high school that they deserved more from their leaders. Obama also used his visit to Flint as an opportunity to pressure Republicans in Congress to support billions of dollars in improvements to infrastructure around the country. The White House also announced new initiatives to assist local and state efforts to help Flint, including a $10 million HHS grant for health services in Michigan, including $1 million for a health center in Flint that is treating those affected by the water.
 
The 2016 Water Development Resources Act (S. 2848), which the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed on April 28, provides an immediate $100 million in new federal funding to an emergency infrastructure program under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which the State of Michigan can access after submitting a comprehensive plan to the EPA. This funding will only be available to a community, like Flint, that received a federal emergency declaration by the President due to a public health threat from high amounts of lead in the water. The State of Michigan will be given new flexibility to use funding from the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund to forgive Flint's debts incurred prior to fiscal year 2016, and it lifts the prohibition on using more than 20 percent of the fund's fiscal year 2016 allotment for principal forgiveness. WRDA also provides funding to activate at least $700 million in low-interest loans to finance much-needed upgrades to public drinking water systems. These loans will be made possible through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), which will be available to eligible communities in all states, including Michigan. In addition, there is $17.5 million to create a national registry to monitor health effects of children exposed to lead. Another $32.5 million is provided to help improve the short- and long-term effects of lead poisoning, including providing assistance to pregnant women and new mothers, while educating and informing the public of the dangers of lead exposure. Read more...
White House Announces Action to Fight Tax Evasion
 
On May 5, the White House announced  new actions designed to fight money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. The initiatives include final and proposed rules from the Treasury Department, as well as administration calls for congressional action.  One of the new actions is a final  rule  from Treasury that requires financial institutions to know and verify the identities of the actual people who own and control companies or of the "beneficial owners" when the entities open accounts. The rule also helps make information available to law enforcement officers that could help them disrupt illicit financial networks. Treasury and the IRS are also proposing regulations that would close a loophole that enables the shielding of foreign assets through U.S.-based anonymous companies. A narrow class of foreign-owned U.S. companies currently has no requirement to report tax information to the IRS. But the rule requires these companies to obtain IRS-issued employer identification numbers. The Obama Administration is also urging Congress to pass legislation and ratify treaties that would help the U.S. fight financial crimes. Treasury on Friday sent draft legislation to Congress that would require companies to report information on their beneficial owners to the Department. The Justice Department announced that it is also sending Congress legislative proposals that concern the illegal proceeds of transnational corruption and substantive corruption offenses. Read more...
Lawmakers Reach Agreement on Chemical Reform Legislation
 
On May 6, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced an agreement on negotiations to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA), which regulates the introduction of new or already existing chemicals . They stated that "[w ]e have negotiated in good faith and are extremely pleased that we have reached an agreement on key sticking points of the TSCA reform bill. We have an incredible team that is working tirelessly, and we look forward to finalizing the deal with House negotiators." The deal represents a compromise between the broader Senate overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act (S. 697) and a narrower House-passed version (H.R. 2576 ). Chief among the remaining issues was how to handle federal preemption of state chemical laws and regulations, according to Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), key lawmakers on the chemical reform efforts. Read more...
Congressional Schedule

Tuesday, May 10 
  • Full Senate Finance Committee hearing entitled "Can Evidence Based Practices Improve Outcomes for Vulnerable Individuals and Families?"
  • Full Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing entitled "Understanding Dyslexia: The Intersection of Scientific Research and Education."
  • Full Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Oversight and Reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act: The Balance between National Security, Privacy and Civil Liberties."
  • Full House Rules Committee hearing to consider a bill "To provide for the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication, and for other purposes" (H.R. 4641) and the "Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016" (H.R. 5046). 
Wednesday, May 11 
  • House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense markup of the FY 2017 Defense Appropriations bill.
  • Full Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
  • Full Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled "Leveraging the U.S. Science and Technology Enterprise."
  • House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing entitled "Health Care Solutions: Increasing Patient Choice and Plan Innovation."
  • Full Senate Finance Committee hearing entitled "Oversight of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency."
  • Full Senate Indian Affairs Committee legislative hearing on the "Tribal Veterans Health Care Enhancement Act" (S. 2417) and the "Johnson-O'Malley Supplemental Indian Education Program Modernization Act" (S. 2842); markup of the "Native American Languages Reauthorization Act of 2015" (S. 1163), the "Reforming American Indian Standards of Education (RAISE) Act of 2016" (S. 2580), and the "Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation Equitable Compensation Act" (S. 2739).
  • Full House Judiciary Committee markup of the "Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2016" (H.R. 5063).
  • Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law hearing entitled "Examining the Proposed FCC Privacy Rules."
  • House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy hearing entitled "Department of Energy Oversight: Office of Fossil Energy."
  • Full House Small Business Committee hearing entitled "Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Learning from the Experts."
  • Full Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing entitled "An Examination of the Administration's Overtime Rule and the Rising Costs of Doing Business."
  • House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity markup of the "Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans (HIRE Vets) Act" (H.R. 3286); a bill "To authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to recoup relocation expenses paid to or on behalf of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs" (H.R. 4138); a draft bill entitled the "Veterans Education Enhancement Act of 2016"; a draft bill entitled the "Veterans Success on Campus Act of 2016"; a draft bill "To direct the Secretary of Labor to carry out a research program to evaluate the effectiveness of Transition Assistance Program in addressing needs of certain minority veterans"; and a draft bill entitled the "GI Bill Oversight Act of 2016."
  • House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing entitled the "Implementation of the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)." 
Thursday, May 12 
  • Full House Agriculture Committee hearing entitled "The Past, Present, and Future of SNAP: The Retailer Perspective."
  • Full Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
  • House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance hearing entitled "The Future of Housing in America: A Comparison of the United Kingdom and United States Models for Affordable Housing."
  • House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence hearing entitled "Following the Money: Examining Current Terrorist Financing Trends and the Threat to the Homeland."
  • Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management hearing entitled "Examining Due Process in Administrative Hearings."
  • Full Senate Judiciary Committee markup of: the "Expatriate Terrorist Act" (S. 247); the "Rapid DNA Act of 2015" (S. 2348); the "Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2016" (S. 2577); and the "Protecting Our Lives by Initiating COPS Expansion (POLICE) Act of 2016" (S. 2840).
  • House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands legislative hearing on the "California Coastal National Monument Expansion Act" (H.R. 3565); the "Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act" (H.R. 3839); a bill "To eliminate an unused lighthouse reservation, provide management consistency by incorporating the rocks and small islands along the coast of Orange County, California, into the California Coastal National Monument managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and meet the original Congressional intent of preserving Orange County's rocks and small islands, and for other purposes"; and a bill "To adjust the eastern boundary of the Whychus-Deschutes Wilderness Study Area in the State of Oregon to facilitate fire prevention and response activities to protect adjacent private property, and for other purposes."
  • House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing entitled "Local and State Perspectives on BLM's Draft Planning 2.0 Rule."
  • Full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled "Examining Management Practices and Misconduct at TSA: Part II."
  • House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Oversight hearing entitled "FDIC Data Breaches: Can Americans Trust that Their Private Banking Information Is Secure?"
  • Full House Small Business Committee hearing entitled "The New Faces of American Manufacturing."
  • House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management hearing entitled "Controlling the Rising Cost of Federal Responses to Disaster."
  • Full House Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing entitled "Combating the Crisis: Evaluating Efforts to Prevent Veteran Suicide."
  • House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy hearing on "Member proposals for improvements to the U.S. tax system." 
Friday, May 13 
  • Full Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).