Weekly Legislative Update
 Week of January 23, 2017
  
Congressional Outlook

Week of January 17

The House and Senate are both in session this week, albeit an abbreviated one, as House and Senate Republicans travel Wednesday-Friday to Philadelphia, PA for a legislative retreat and Senate Democrats travel to Shepherdstown, WV for their own legislative retreat. On Monday and Tuesday, the House will consider 14 bills under suspension of the rules. The House on Tuesday will also vote on the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017 ( H.R. 7 ), which would amend the Affordable Care Act to bar any federal money to provide premium subsidies that help pay for insurance plans that provide abortion services and would prohibit state matching funds from being used for purchasing such coverage.
 
Late Monday, the Senate confirmed Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Five Senate committees will also be holding final confirmation votes this week for Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Ben Carson, Elaine Chao, Wilbur Ross, Ryan Zinke, and Rick Perry to serve as U.S. Attorney General and the Secretaries of State, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Commerce, Interior, and Energy, respectively. Additionally, there will be confirmation hearings this week for Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to serve as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) to serve as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Linda McMahon to serve as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
 
On Monday morning, President Donald J. Trump signed three executive orders withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, placing a hiring freeze on non-military federal workers, and cutting off federal funding for foreign organizations that provide abortions. Trump is expected to sign numerous other executive orders over the next several weeks nullifying previous executive orders and policies signed and implemented by former President Obama. On Tuesday, the FY 2018 budget cycle starts in earnest, when the Congressional Budget Office releases its preliminary budget baseline and economic outlook for the next ten years, which will become a key yardstick against which President Trump's and congressional budget plans are measured.  
Week in Review

Donald J. Trump Sworn-in as 45th President of the United States
 
At noon on Friday, January 20, Donald J. Trump took the oath of office to become the 45th President of the United States and Mike Pence was sworn in as the 48th Vice President of the United States. In his Inaugural Address, Trump hit out at the Washington political establishment, accusing elites of abusing the trust of the American people, and touting his "America first" mindset, he pledged to bring jobs back to the U.S. Later on Friday, Trump took a few key steps for his new Administration, including: (1) officially sending 26 Cabinet-level and executive nominations to the Senate for formal consideration; (2) signing an executive order giving federal agencies broad powers to unwind regulations created under the Affordable Care Act; and (3) issuing a memorandum calling for most pending federal rules to be halted "in order to ensure that the President's appointees or designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations." The new Trump White House website also includes updated information on six different policy areas.   Read more...     
Trump Administration Prepares Dramatic Budget Cuts
 
On January 19, it was reported by The Hill that the Trump Administration is preparing plans to "shrink the federal bureaucracy" and "reduce federal spending by $10.5 trillion over 10 years." The proposed cuts hew closely to a blueprint published in March 2016 by the conservative Heritage Foundation, a think tank that has helped staff the Trump transition. Read more...
Senate Votes to Confirm James Mattis as Defense Secretary and John Kelly as Homeland Security Secretary
 
On Friday afternoon, several hours after Donald Trump was sworn-in as President, the Senate voted 98-1 and 88-11 to confirm the nominations of former U.S. Marine Corps generals James N. Mattis and John F. Kelly, to serve as the U.S. Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, respectively; the two men were then both sworn-in for their new positions immediately after. Additional votes on Trump's Cabinet-level positions are expected to be taken by the Senate in the next several weeks. Read more...       
Trump Announces Sonny Perdue as his U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Nominee
 
On January 19, President Trump announced his last remaining member of his Cabinet: former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to serve as his U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Perdue served on Trump's agricultural advisory committee during his presidential campaign and, in announcing the nomination, the Trump transition team stressed Perdue's focus on rural communities and family farms, describing it as a "key part of the Trump movement."  Read more...
Senate Holds Eight Confirmation Hearings for Trump's Cabinet Picks
 
Last week, six Senate committees held eight confirmation hearings for Trump's nominees for Secretaries of the Interior, Education, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Energy, and Treasury, in addition to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. During the previous week of January 9, seven Senate committees held confirmation hearings for Trump's nominees for U.S. Attorney General, CIA Director, Homeland Security, Transportation, State, Defense, Housing and Urban Development Secretaries. Read more...
Senate Passes GAO Access and Oversight Act of 2017
 
On January 17, the Senate passed, by a vote of 99-0, the GAO Access and Oversight Act of 2017 (H.R. 72), which provides the Government Accountability Office with enhanced tools to oversee federal programs and ensure that the GAO is able to obtain records it needs to audit, evaluate, and investigate federal agencies. The House previously passed H.R. 72 on January 4 by voice vote and now heads to President Trump to be signed into law.  Read more...  
Congressional Schedule

Monday, January 23 
  • Full Senate Foreign Relations Committee business meeting to vote on the nomination of Rex Tillerson to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.
  • Full House Rules Committee meeting to consider the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017 (H.R. 7).
Tuesday, January 24
  • Full Senate Armed Services Committee hearing entitled "Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 and Onwards."
  • Full Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Executive Session to vote on the nomination of Ben Carson to serve as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
  • Full House Budget Committee organizational meeting for the 115th Congress and hearing entitled "The Failures of Obamacare: Harmful Effects and Broken Promises."
  • Full Senate Budget Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to serve as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
  • Full Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Executive Session to vote on the nominations of Elaine Chao to serve as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Wilbur Ross to serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce; to formally adopt rules and the budget resolution for the 115th Congress; and to consider the following 17 bills: the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (MOBILE NOW) Act (S. 19); the Senior Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 (S. 81); the Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act (S. 88); a bill to amend title 46, United States Code (S. 89); the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (S. 96); the Securing Access to Networks in Disasters (SANDY) Act (S. 102); the Digital Coast Act (S. 110); the Reinforcing American-Made Products Act of 2017 (S. 118); Kari's Law Act (S. 123); the National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2017 (S. 129); the Spoofing Prevention Act (S. 134); Space Weather Research and Forecasting Act (S. 141); the Commercial Vessel Incidental Discharge (VIDA) Act (S. 168); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps Amendments and Hydrographic Services Improvement Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2017 (S. 171); the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act (S. 174); Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act (H.R. 255); and the Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act (H.R. 321).
  • Full Senate Energy and Natural Resources Executive Session to vote on the nominations of Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Rick Perry to serve as U.S. Secretary of Energy and organizational meeting for the 115th Congress.
  • Full Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing for Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) to serve as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  • Full Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Executive Session to vote on the nomination of Betsy DeVos to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education and organizational meeting for the 115th Congress.
  • Full Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee nomination hearing for Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to serve as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
  • Full Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Business meeting to vote on the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to serve as U.S. Attorney General and organizational meeting for the 115th Congress.
  • Full Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee nomination hearing for Linda McMahon to serve as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
  • House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight organizational meeting for the 115th Congress and hearing entitled "Examining the Effectiveness of the Individual Mandate under the Affordable Care Act."