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Weekly Legislative Update
Week of February 21, 2017
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Week of February 21
The House and Senate are both in recess this week. When the Senate returns next week, it will vote on the nominations of Wilbur Ross to be U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) to be U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ben Carson to be U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Rick Perry to be U.S. Secretary of Energy. The House will likely continue voting on disapproval resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to nullify regulations finalized in the last six months of the Obama Administration.
President Trump is expected to sign two Executive Orders this week on climate and water pollution. The first order will instruct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin rewriting the 2015 regulation that limits greenhouse-gas emissions from existing electric utilities and also instructs the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing. The second order will instruct the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revamp a 2015 rule, known as
the "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS)
rule, which applies to 60 percent of the water bodies in the country. That regulation was issued under the 1972 Clean Water Act, which gives the federal government authority over not only major water bodies but also the wetlands, rivers and streams that feed into them. President Trump may also sign a revised travel Executive Order this week
to rectify the issues raised by federal courts over his January 27 travel ban.
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Senate Votes to Confirm Treasury Secretary, VA Secretary, SBA Administrator, OMB Director, and EPA Administrator
On Feb. 13, the Senate voted
53-47 to confirm Steve Mnuchin as the 77th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and voted
100-0 to confirm David Shulkin as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. On Feb. 14, the Senate voted
81-19 to confirm Linda McMahon as the 25th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. On Feb. 16, the Senate voted
51-49 to confirm Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) as the 41st Director of the Office of Management and Budget. On Feb. 17, the Senate voted
52-46 to confirm Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the 14th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Read more...
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Trump Announces New Labor Secretary Nominee and National Security Adviser
On Feb. 16, President Trump
announced that he had selected
Alexander Acosta, a former senior official
in the Justice Department, federal prosecutor, and member of the National Labor Relations Board, as his new choice for Labor Secretary, after his previous controversial nominee, Andrew Puzder, withdrew his nomination from consideration the day before. On Feb. 20, Trump announced that he had selected Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as his new National Security Advisor, after his previous NSA Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned late on Feb. 13 after only 24 days on the job. Read more here and here.
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Trump Signs Two CRA Disapproval Resolutions Into Law
On Feb. 14 and 16, President Trump signed two Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolutions into law, the first time such a resolution has been enacted since 2001. The two Obama-era rules which have been nullified, and cannot be issued in "substantially the same form" in the future, are:
- the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's resource extraction rule, which requires companies to disclose payments to the U.S. and foreign governments for the development of oil, natural gas or minerals; previously, the House voted 235-187 and the Senate voted 52-47 to pass the resolution; and
- the Interior Department's Stream Protection Rule, which prohibits mining activities that would cause "material damage" to streams outside of the mining permit area; previously, the House voted 228-194 and the Senate voted 54-45 to pass the resolution.
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Senate Passes CRA Disapproval Resolution on Obama-era Gun Rule
On Feb. 15, the Senate voted
57-43 to nullify an Obama-era
Social Security Administration (SSA) Rule on implementation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments, under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The rule provides for the names of anyone who is receiving benefits from the SSA, has a mental disability and requires a representative payee for assistance with their finances to be automatically entered into the NICS system, thereby restricting those persons from purchasing a firearm.
On Feb. 2, the House passed the disapproval resolution on this rule by a vote of
235-180
and President Trump has indicated that he will sign the disapproval resolution into law. Read more...
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House Passes Five CRA Disapproval Resolutions
On Feb. 15 and 16, the House passed five disapproval resolutions under the Congressional Review Act, which will nullify the following Obama-era rules:
- a Labor Department rule allowing large cities and counties to set up auto-enrollment retirement savings programs-passed by a vote of 234-191;
- a Labor Department rule related to auto-enrolling employees in state-run retirement plans-passed by a vote of 231-193;
- a Labor Department rule which limits drug testing of certain unemployment compensation applicants-passed by a vote of 236-189;
- an Interior Department rule barring any predator population-control hunting on national wildlife refuges in Alaska unless it's in response to a conservation concern-passed by a vote of 225-193; and
- a Health and Human Services Department rule that allows grantees of Title X funds, which cover family planning services, to choose sub-recipients of the funds only on the basis of their ability to provide Title X services-passed by a vote of 230-188.
The Senate is expected to pass all five CRA resolutions with at least 51 votes and President Trump has already indicated that he will sign them into law. Read more...
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House Republican Leaders Present Affordable Care Act Repeal and Replace Policy Brief
On February 16, House Republican leaders presented their rank-and-file members with the outlines of their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaning heavily on tax credits to finance individual insurance purchases and sharply reducing federal payments to the 31 states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility. House Speaker
Paul Ryan (R-WI)
and House Ways and Means & Energy and Commerce Committee Chairmen Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Greg Walden (R-OR), respectively, stood with the new Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to announce their plans. However, the
talking points they provided did not say how the legislation would be paid for, essentially laying out the benefits without the more controversial costs. It also included no estimates of the number of people who would gain or lose insurance under the plan, nor did it include comparisons with the ACA, which has extended coverage to 20 million people.
Read more...
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