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Weekly Legislative Update
Week of April 3, 2017
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Week of April 3
The House and Senate are both in session this week. The House will consider 5 bills under suspension of the rules, including concurring in the Senate amendment to the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (H.R. 353), which would develop initiatives to improve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's forecasting and research for severe weather events and tsunamis. For the remainder of the week, the House will vote on the Encouraging Employee Ownership Act of 2017 (H.R. 1343), which would double the threshold at which a company would be subject to disclosure requirements related to employee stock options from $5 million to $10 million; the Self-Insurance Protection Act (H.R. 1304), which would codify current practice by excluding stop-loss insurance, which employers can purchase to cover excessive medical costs of self-insured health plans, from the definition of health insurance; and the Supporting America's Innovators Act of 2017 (H.R. 1219), which would allow as many as 250 people to invest in a venture capital fund before the fund would have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill (S. 89) to exempt the Mississippi riverboat Delta Queen from Coast Guard requirements that vessels with more than 50 passengers must be constructed from fire-retardant materials. On Tuesday, the Senate will vote on Elaine Duke's nomination as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Debate on President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch, is expected to consumer floor time for the remainder of the week, with a cloture vote, requiring 60 votes to advance his nomination for a final vote, taking place on Thursday. Thus far, only four Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), have voiced their opposition to filibustering Gorsuch, while 42 Senate Democrats have stated their intention to vote to filibuster Gorsuch. As a result, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is very likely to utilize the so-called "nuclear option" to abolish the 60-vote threshold to limit debate on Supreme Court nominations, allowing Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed with only 51 votes instead of 60 on Friday.
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Trump Signs Broad Executive Order Unwinding Obama Administration Climate Policies
On March 28, President Trump signed an
Executive Order entitled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth." The Order
directs the EPA to review the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan, rescind the moratorium on coal mining on federal lands and urges federal agencies to "identify all regulations, all rules, all policies [...] that serve as obstacles and impediments to American energy independence." The Order also goes directly after President Obama's climate record, repealing at least six Obama-era Executive Orders aimed at addressing global warming, including a series of orders that instructed the federal government to prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Read more...
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Trump Signs Executive Order Establishing Commission on Combating Drug Addiction
On March 29, President Trump signed an
Executive Order "Establishing the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis." The new Commission is
designed to:
- Identify existing federal dollars to combat drug addiction, including opioids;
- Assess availability and access to addiction treatment centers and overdose reversal and identify underserved areas;
- Measure the effectiveness of state prescription drug monitoring programs; and
- Evaluate public messaging campaigns about prescription and illegal opioids, and identify best practices for drug prevention.
In 90 days, the commission will submit an interim report to Trump with its findings and will submit a final report by Oct. 1, unless more time is needed. The Commission will dissolve a month later. Read more...
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Trump Signs Two Executive Orders Ramping Up Trade Enforcement
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Trump Signs Five CRA Disapproval Resolutions Into Law
On
March 27 and
31, President Trump signed five Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolutions into law, which nullify Obama Administration rules which were finalized from June-December 2016:
- a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "Planning 2.0" rule which would change how the BLM develops resource management plans; the House passed this by a vote of 234-186 and the Senate by a vote of 51-48;
- a DoD/GSA/NASA rule requiring prospective federal contractors to disclose previous labor law violations when bidding for large federal contracts; the House passed this by a vote of 236-187 and the Senate by a vote of 49-48;
- an Education Department rule aimed at improving the quality of teacher preparation programs by requiring states to report specific information on these programs, such as student learning outcomes, and rating their effectiveness; the House passed this by a vote of 240-181 and the Senate by a vote of 59-40;
- an Education Department rule regarding school accountability standards; the House passed this by a vote of 234-190 and the Senate by a vote of 50-49;
- a Department of Labor rule which would have imposed limits on states' authority to drug test applicants for unemployment benefits; the House passed this by a vote of 236-189 and the Senate by a vote of 51-48.
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Trump Creates New White House Office of American Innovation
On March 27, President Trump signed a
Presidential Memorandum creating a new White House Office of American Innovation (
OAI), to be led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The OAI will "
bring together the best ideas from Government, the private sector, and other thought leaders to ensure that America is ready to solve today's most intractable problems, and is positioned to meet tomorrow's challenges and opportunities. The office will focus on implementing policies and scaling proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation."
Read more...
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Trump Administration Proposes $18 Billion in Cuts for Remainder of FY 2017
On March 27, a
document was leaked from the Trump Administration listing the Administration's proposed changes to about a hundred different discretionary appropriations accounts for the current fiscal year which ends on September 30, 2017, totaling $17.935 billion in cuts. It is very unlikely that Congress will agree to the vast majority of these cuts in the must-pass FY 2017 omnibus that will need to be signed into law by April 28 in order to avoid a government shutdown.
Read more...
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Attorney General Sessions Says DOJ Grants to be Withheld from Sanctuary Cities
On March 27, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions
announced
that state and local governments seeking any Justice Department Office of Justice Programs (OJP) grants must certify that they are not so-called sanctuary cities in order to receive the money. OJP provides billions of dollars in grants and other funding to help criminal justice programs across the country. Specifically, Sessions stated that all local jurisdictions "
seeking or applying for Department grants [must] certify compliance with Section 1373 as a condition for receiving these awards. This policy is entirely consistent with the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) guidance issued last July under the previous administration. This guidance requires state and local jurisdictions to comply and certify compliance with Section 1373 in order to be eligible for OJP grants. It also made clear that failure to remedy violations could result in withholding of grants, termination of grants, and disbarment or ineligibility for future grants."
Read more...
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Senate Passes Two CRA Disapproval Resolutions on Retirement Savings Accounts and Family Planning Services
Last week, the Senate passed two Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions to nullify Obama Administration rules finalized from June 2016 to January 2017, two of which
will now be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature. These rules, which will now be sent to President Trump's desk to be nullified, include:
- a Labor Department December 2016 rule allowing large cities and counties to set up auto-enrollment retirement savings programs-passed by a vote of 50-49; the House previously passed the resolution on Feb. 15 by a vote of 234-191; the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy stating that if the resolution "were presented to the President [...] his advisors would recommend that he sign [it] into law"; and a
- a Health and Human Services Department December 2016 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 51-50 (Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote, since Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted against the resolution with all 48 Senate Democrats); the House previously passed the resolution on Feb.16 by a vote of 230-188.
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House Passes CRA Disapproval Resolution on FCC Broadband Privacy Rule
On March 28, the House passed, by a vote of
215-205, a CRA disapproval resolution to nullify the FCC's December 2016
rule
which requires broadband providers to clearly disclose privacy policies and obtain consumers' "opt-in" permission before sharing certain customer information with other companies; the Senate previously passed the resolution on March 23 by a vote of
50-48
.
The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy stating that if the resolution "were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law." Read more...
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House Passes Two EPA-related Bills
Last week, the House voted on two bills related to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
- the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act of 2017 (H.R. 1430), passed by a vote of 228-194, would prohibit the EPA from proposing, finalizing or disseminating any rule, regulation or other "covered action" unless all scientific and technical information relied upon to support that decision is made available to the public in a manner where the research can be independently analyzed and substantially reproduced; and
- the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 1431), passed by a vote of 229-193, would require the EPA to select members for the Science Advisory Board (SAB) that represent a "balanced" view of scientific issues, and would allow up to 90% of SAB members to be private-sector scientists with direct ties to industry. The bill would also require a number of changes to the SAB's operations. The Board would be required to release to the public all scientific information used in determining its advisories to EPA, indicating any and all "uncertainties" associated with the scientific advice it does provide, and it must ensure that the advice it provides to EPA reflect the views of all Board members. It also would allow the public to file public comments on those advisories and require the Board to respond to all public comments.
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House Passes Two FEMA-related Relief Improvement Act
On March 27, the House passed, by a vote of
408-0, the FEMA Relief Improvement Act (
H.R. 1117),
which would
require FEMA to create a plan that would provide consistent guidance and accurate information following a disaster. T
he House also passed, by voice vote, the Disaster Simplified Assistance Value Enhancement (Disaster SAVE) Act (H.R. 1214), which would temporarily increase FEMA's simplified projects threshold for disaster assistance from $130,100 to $500,000 and remove red tape to allow local governments more autonomy in managing recovery efforts. Read more here and here.
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More than 200 Members of Congress Sign Letter Urging Protection of LWCF
On March 30, more than 200 House members, including 36 Republicans, sent a
letter to House Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-MN) "to express our strong support for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and urge you to allocate robust funding to this valuable, time-tested program in the FY 2018 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. [...] The State and Local Grants Program and the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program provide crucial support for state and local park acquisitions in cities, counties, and rural towns as well as recreational facilities and trail corridors."
President Trump's FY 2018 budget proposal seeks to cut the Interior Department's budget by 12 percent, including reducing land acquisition funding by more than $120 million.
Read more...
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