Weekly Legislative Update
 Week of September 5, 2017
  
Congressional Outlook

The House and Senate are both in session this week. The House will consider five bills under suspension of the rules, including the SELF DRIVE Act (H.R. 3388), which would designate the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as the federal agency responsible for regulating self-driving car safety and would allow NHTSA regulations to preempt all state and local laws in this area. The House will also vote on the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 3354), which includes the eight FY 2018 appropriations bills that have not yet been considered by the full House: Interior-Environment, Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations, and Transportation-HUD. The House Rules Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to approve consideration of some of the 970 amendments filed to the appropriations minibus package. The House will also vote on legislation providing a down payment of $7.85 billion in FY 2017 emergency supplemental funding to provide disaster aid to Texas and Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, including $7.4 billion for FEMA and $450 million for the Small Business Administration.
  
On Monday, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Timothy Kelly to be a U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Senate will also consider the $696 billion FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2810), which the House passed on July 14 by a vote of 344-81. The Senate HELP Committee will be holding hearings over the next two weeks with Governors, State Insurance Commissioners, and other healthcare stakeholders to discuss "Stabilizing Premiums and Helping Individuals in the Individual Marketplace for 2018." The Senate Appropriations Committee will also be marking up their FY 2018 Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bills this week, and will markup the remaining FY 2018 Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, and Interior-Environment Appropriations bills over the next two weeks.      
 
Lawmakers face a long list of must-pass bills which must be passed by September 30. These include: passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown and temporarily fund the federal government through mid-December; extending the government's borrowing authority by raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default on federal obligations; short-term extensions of programs with authorizations that expire on Sept. 30, including the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) power to collect ticket and fuel taxes to operate its air-traffic-control and safety programs; the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP); the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); the EB-5 regional center foreign-investors visa program; and vocational-education grants under the Carl Perkins Act of 2006. Passage of the FY 2018 Budget Resolution is also expected in September, which will be used to pass tax reform under the rules of reconciliation, with only 51 votes needed in the Senate.
 
On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump Administration will give Congress six months (i.e. March 5, 2018) to devise an alternative before it rescinds the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was created by the Obama Administration in June 2012 and allows nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. On Tuesday afternoon, President Trump will meet with the " Big Six" tax reform negotiators- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn- to negotiate a tax reform framework. Ryan, McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will meet with Trump on Wednesday morning to discuss a deal on government funding, the debt ceiling, a Hurricane Harvey relief package, and a slew of stalled Trump nominations. 
Week in Review

Trump Signs Three Executive Orders and Eight Presidential Memoranda
 
Over the past four weeks, President Trump signed the following three Executive Orders (E.O.s), including:  
  • On August 15, Trump signed E.O. 13807 "Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure Projects," which completely revokes President Obama's E.O. 13690, signed on January 30, 2015, which established a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard requiring tougher new building standards for government-funded infrastructure projects in flood-prone areas, including those at risk of rising sea levels brought on by climate change; implements a One Federal Decision policy under which the lead federal agency will work with other relevant Federal agencies to complete the environmental reviews and permitting decisions needed for major infrastructure projects; mandates that the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) develop and implement an action plan to improve environmental reviews government-wide and will mediate disagreements between federal agencies so a decision isn't delayed amid bureaucratic disputes; and mandates that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) develop a two-year government-wide modernization goal and ensure federal agencies take meaningful steps to achieve it.  
  • On August 28, Trump signed E.O. 13809 "Restoring State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement's Access to Life-Saving Equipment and Resources," which revokes President Obama's E.O. 13688, signed on January 16, 2015, which announced new limits on federal programs that supply state, local, and tribal law enforcement with military-style equipment under the so-called 1033 program operated by the Department of Defense; and revokes the recommendations issued in May 2015 pursuant to E.O. 13688 and directs all executive departments and agencies to "cease implementing those recommendations and, if necessary, to take prompt action to rescind any rules, regulations, guidelines, or policies implementing them."  
Trump also issued eight Presidential Memoranda over the past four weeks, including:  
  • On August 18, Trump sent a memorandum to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis entitled "Elevation of U.S. Cyber Command to a Unified Combatant Command," which directs the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving. The memo also bans the Department of Defense (DoD) from using its resources to provide medical treatment regimens for transgender individuals currently serving in the military and directs DoD and the Homeland Security Department "to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant." 
Trump Signs Ten Bills Into Law
 
Over the past four weeks, President Trump signed the following 10 bills into law:  
  • S. 114, the "VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017," which authorizes and appropriates $2.1 billion to the Veterans Choice Fund, extends certain authorities as a partial offset for this appropriation, authorizes 28 major medical facilities leases, and changes a number of VA authorities related to personnel;
  • H.R. 2210, which designates the community living center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Butler Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as the Sergeant Joseph George Kusick VA Community Living Center;
  • H.R. 3218, the "Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017," which amends a number of authorities of the Department of Veterans Affairs related to:  (1) Post-9/11 GI Bill; (2) other educational programs; (3) administration of educational programs; (4) Reserve Component benefits; and (5) miscellaneous provisions;
  • H.R. 374, which makes permanent the authority of Washington, Oregon, and California to adopt and enforce State laws governing fishing and processing in their State in any Dungeness crab fishery for which there is no fishery management plan in effect;
  • H.R. 510, the "Rapid DNA Act of 2017," which authorizes criminal justice agencies to use Rapid DNA instruments approved by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct certain DNA analysis outside of a laboratory;
  • H.R. 873, the "Global War on Terrorism War Memorial Act," which authorizes the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation to establish a Global War on Terrorism Memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia;
  • H.R. 2430, the "FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017," which reauthorizes Food and Drug Administration (FDA) user fee programs for prescription drugs, medical devices, generic drugs, and biosimilars; and to amend FDA authorities and activities related to medical products, including pediatric drugs and devices, generic drugs, device inspections, drug exclusivity, and user fee reporting requirements;
  • H.J. Res. 76, which provides congressional consent and approval for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia to enter into the Metrorail Safety Commission Interstate Compact to provide safety oversight of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail system;
  • H.R. 339, the "Northern Mariana Islands Economic Expansion Act," which makes certain changes to the transitional worker program for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and
  • H.R. 2288, the "Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017," which provides comprehensive reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs benefits claims appeals process.
Trump Announces Nominations to Administrative Posts
 
On September 1, President Trump announced  his intent to nominate the following 42 individuals to key positions in the Trump Administration, including:  
  • Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 
  • Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) to be Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. 
  • David Ross to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water. 
  • Matthew Leopold to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, General Counsel. 
  • Margaret Weichert to be Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget. 
  • Thomas Modly to be Under Secretary of the Navy. 
  • Emily Murphy to be Administrator of General Services. 
  • Timothy Gallaudet to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. 
  • Gregory Ibach to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. 
  • Stephen Vaden to be General Counsel, Department of Agriculture.
  • Bruce Walker to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy, Electricity, Delivery and Energy Reliability. 
  • Steven Winberg to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy, Fossil Energy.
  • William Northey to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation. 
  • Suzanne Tufts to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Administration. 
White House Briefs State, Local Officials on Trump's Infrastructure Plan
 
On August 30, the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs held a meeting with around 150 state, local, and tribal leaders to provide an update on the Trump Administration's draft guiding principles for infrastructure and hear input from the local officials. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, Special Assistant to the President for Infrastructure D.J. Gribbin, and Council on Environmental Quality infrastructure point person Alex Hergott were present at the meeting. Mulvaney said the legislation will likely consist of three major components, starting with an emphasis on providing money for projects that already have some level of local or private funding. The goal is to use $200 billion in federal funding to leverage about $1 trillion worth of overall infrastructure investment. To do that, the Administration will prioritize federal funding for projects that already have significant revenue secured, either from local sources or the private sector. The second piece of Trump's infrastructure bill will focus on rural areas, as the White House recognizes that rural projects may not always be good candidates for the private financing model. The rest of the money in the proposal will be funneled towards the "transformative stuff," such as new ways of building roads, tunnels and bridges, Mulvaney said. Read more...
Trump Administration Cutting Ads and Grants Aimed at Boosting ACA Enrollment
 
On August 31, senior Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials announced that the Trump Administration is cutting nearly $116 million from outreach programs aimed at signing people up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a move that has cheered the health law's opponents but inflamed Democrats who fear the Administration is undermining it. HHS plans to spend $10 million during the coming open-enrollment period on advertising, including emails, texts, radio ads and digital promotions. That is a 90% drop from about $100 million spent by the Obama Administration during the last open-enrollment season. The enrollment period starts November 1 and lasts 45 days, and HHS officials said there is no evidence the ads have boosted enrollment in the past. About 10.3 million people signed up and paid for coverage as of March 2017, down from 10.8 million in March 2016. The Trump Administration is also cutting grants to organizations that help consumers understand their coverage and financial-aid options under the law. HHS will give $36.8 million in grants in 2017 to such groups, known as "navigators," a drop of about 40% from the $62.5 million awarded in the previous enrollment period. Read more...
EPA and Corps to Host Ten Hearings on WOTUS Rule Rewrite
 
On August 28, the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that they will be holding ten teleconferences "to hear from stakeholders their recommendations to revise the definition of 'Waters of the United States' (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Nine of the teleconferences will be tailored to a specific sector, i.e., agriculture (row crop, livestock, silviculture); conservation (hunters and anglers); small entities (small businesses, small organizations, small jurisdictions); construction and transportation; environment and public advocacy (including health and environmental justice); mining; industry (energy, chemical, oil/gas); scientific organizations and academia; and stormwater, wastewater management, and drinking water agencies. One of the teleconferences will be open to the public at large. The teleconferences will run throughout the fall on Tuesdays from 1-3pm EST, beginning on Sept. 19. In addition, the agencies will hold an in-person meeting with small entities on Oct. 23 from 9-11am EST in Washington, DC and will accept written recommendations from any member of the public on or before Nov. 28. Read more...