|
Weekly Legislative Update
Week of August 29, 2016
|
|
|
Week of August 29th
The House and Senate are in summer recess for one more week until Tuesday, September 6. President Obama will travel to China and Laos from September 2-9 to highlight his "ongoing commitment to the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation as well as the U.S. Rebalance to Asia and the Pacific."
Next week, the House will consider three financial services-related bills including; the Accelerating Access to Capital Act of 2015 (H.R. 2357), the Investment Advisers Modernization Act of 2016 ( H.R. 5424), and the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2016 ( H.R. 5063).
On September 6, the Senate will resume consideration of the spending
bill
that includes $1.1 billion funding to combat Zika, in addition to the $575 billion FY 2017 Defense Appropriations bill (
S. 3000
). This fall, Congress will also likely consider a stopgap Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government from October 1 to mid-December, a FY 2017 omnibus appropriations bill,
the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 (
S. 2012
), the $602 billion FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (
S. 2943
), the 2016 Water Resources Development Act (
S. 2848
/
H.R. 5303
), the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 6), the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 (H.R. 5003/S. 3136), the Veterans First Act (S. 2921), and numerous other legislative items before the 114th Congress concludes on Friday, December 16.
Voters in Arizona and Florida head to the polls on Tuesday for House and Senate primaries on Tuesday. There are 70 days until Election Day and 27 days until the first presidential debate.
|
|
|
House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte Releases Discussion Draft of Online Sales Simplification Act of 2016
On August 25, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) released the long-anticipated discussion draft of the "Online Sales Simplification Act of 2016," which attempts to resolve the long-running dispute among retailers, state governments, and online retailers over how to tax purchases made across state lines by introducing a new legal framework for cross-border sales. Sales would be taxed according to the tax base of the retailer and a single tax rate chosen by the consumer's state. Several other highlights of the bill include:
- The bill implements Chairman Goodlatte's much-discussed 'hybrid-origin' approach;
- The bill removes the Quill physical presence requirements for sales tax collection obligations under certain circumstances;
- States may impose sales tax on remote sales if the state is the origin state and it participates in a statutory clearinghouse and the tax uses the origin state base and the destination state rate for participating states (the origin state rate is used if the destination state does not participate in the clearinghouse);
- A remote seller will only have to remit the tax to its origin state for all remote sales;
- A destination state may only have one statewide rate for remote sales;
- Only the origin state may audit a seller for remote sales; and
- States that do not participate in the clearinghouse have significant restrictions on the ability to extract the tax from the remote seller.
Chairman Goodlatte's proposal comes with little time left on the congressional calendar. It isn't clear yet whether he would push for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee or how much support it would get among House Republicans, who are wary of anything that looks like a tax increase.
Read more...
|
|
Obama Administration Sends Congress List of Anomalies for Expected Continuing Resolution
On August 26, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a list of authorization and appropriations anomalies (see here and here) to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for the expected Continuing Resolution (CR), which will need to be passed in September to fund the federal government beginning October 1st, with funding likely lasting through mid-December 2016. The list of so-called anomalies is an initial wish list of items the Obama Administration wants included in the expected CR, which includes requests to facilitate more funding on items ranging from border control to the upcoming presidential inauguration on January 20th, 2017. The request will now will be subject to scrutiny by Republican leaders in the House and Senate, as they work to develop the CR. Congressional aides said they view the list received by House and Senate appropriators as an "opening gambit" in the two sides' negotiation over the CR. Appropriators are expected to begin talks with Obama Administration officials on its details well before lawmakers officially return to work Sept. 6. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are determined to avoid any replay of the 2013 government shutdown and the economic upheaval it could generate as this year's election season enters its critical phase, aides said. Aides said House chiefs of staff were told in recent meetings to expect that Speaker Ryan will develop a three-month CR that he can bring to the floor no later than the week of Sept. 19. The Senate would be prepared to take it up the following week, they said. Read more...
|
|
President Obama Adds National Monuments in Maine, Hawaii as National Park Service Turns 100
The National Park Service turned 100 years old on August 25, and President Obama celebrated by using the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate two large national monuments. On Wednesday, Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation designating the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine's North Woods, which will cover 87,500 acres and could be the last large piece of land on the East Coast ever shifted into the Park Service's control. On Friday, Obama issued another Presidential Proclamation expanding the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii from 139,797 to 582,578 square miles, making it the largest protected area of water in the world. Obama has now used the Antiquities Act to protect 548 million acres, more than any other President in history. The law was signed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and has become controversial because it allows the President to designate large areas of land as monuments without Congress' consent. Read more here and here.
|
|
House Overshoots Caps in FY 2017 Spending Bills, OMB Finds
On August 19, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report finding that the dozen FY 2017 appropriations bills marked up or passed in the House are $792 million over the discretionary caps, meaning if they were enacted in that form, across-the-board spending cuts would ensue to enforce the statutory cap levels. That is unlikely to happen, since the House and Senate are almost sure to write and agree on final appropriations legislation or a stopgap funding measure for the upcoming fiscal year that is within the limits. In the sequestration update report, OMB also estimated Congress would be able to appropriate up to $8.566 billion for disaster relief in FY 2017 outside the constraints of the spending caps, which were set by the 2011 deficit reduction law. That is more than the $7.143 billion that Congress has appropriated in disaster funding so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30 - far below the $14.125 billion that could be appropriated for disasters under the limit. Under the 2011 law, the maximum amount that can be appropriated under a disaster designation is determined through a formula based on the previous 10 years of disaster spending. The report noted that if Congress were to appropriate additional money for disasters in the current fiscal year that would reduce the potential amount that could be spent next year. In its calculation of the House and Senate spending bills for FY 2017, OMB said the House bills exceed the $551 billion defense cap by $17 million and the $518.5 billion nondefense cap by $775 million. The appropriations bills in the Senate fell under the defense cap by $197 million and under the nondefense cap by $2 billion. The House and Senate appropriations committees have marked up all 12 annual appropriations bills for FY 2017. The House passed five of its bills, while the Senate passed three of its bills. Read more...
|
|
CBO Raises FY 2016 Deficit Estimated by $56 Billion
On August 23, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a
report
raising its estimate of the FY 2016 deficit but said the overall deficit for the next decade will be lower than previously expected. In its updated Budget and Economic Outlook, the CBO estimated the current fiscal year will end with a deficit of $590 billion, $56 billion higher than it projected in March. In a more detailed breakdown of the change in this year's projected deficit, the CBO said while revenue is expected to be $26 billion, or less than 1 percent, higher than last year, spending is projected to rise by $178 billion, or 5 percent, this year. The spending increase, however, is primarily on the mandatory rather than discretionary side. The report said spending for mandatory or automatic-pilot programs such as Social Security and Medicare is expected to go up 6 percent; discretionary spending is due to rise by 1 percent; and the cost of interest payments on the debt is projected to jump by 11 percent. The CBO also increased its estimate of the FY 2017 deficit by $44 billion, to $594 billion. By contrast, the updated deficit projections for 2018 to 2026 are smaller than previously projected. Even with the lower deficit projections, red ink is expected to hit $1 trillion in FY 2024 and continue rising. Debt held by the public is projected to top $23 trillion by the end of 2026. The CBO said it expects economic growth to pick up in the second half of the current calendar year and continue at the faster pace through 2017 before moderating in 2018.
Read more...
|
|
Senate Majority Leader McConnell Rules Out TPP for 2016
On August 25, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made his most unequivocal statement to date that he will not allow consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal in a lame-duck session of Congress this year. McConnell told constituents that he thinks TPP can be reworked and sent back to Congress during a future presidential administration. The reaction to his announcement underscored some of the strange political bedfellows that have come together to oppose TPP. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in a statement that the decision was "good news for American workers, for the environment and for the ability to protect public health." Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
There are no scheduled hearings this week as the House and Senate are in recess.
|
|
|
|
