Government Executive - Authors - Billy House

House Narrowly Approves Massive Spending Bill, Averts Shutdown

Billy House and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 21:50:33 -0500

The House narrowly approved a massive spending bill Thursday night just before the government was set to run out of cash, as an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats teamed up to pass a measure that drew fierce criticism from both liberals and conservatives.

The $1 trillion spending measure passed 219-206, with 161 Republicans and 58 Democrats in favor. It now heads to the Senate for passage, though because the government was technically set to shutdown at midnight, the House then passed a 2-day continuing resolution by unanimous consent to give the other chamber a few days to act.

With President Obama joining all Republican leaders and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer in support of the package, backers were able to overcome a concerted effort led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other key liberals – including Sen. Elizabeth Warren – who complained that the measure was larded-up with provisions to help Wall Street, among other special interests. Many on the right also balked at the bill, preferring to punt long-term spending decisions until next year when Republicans control the Senate.

House Republicans had narrowly cleared a major hurdle Thursday morning in their race for the exits, passing the rule governing debate for the "CROmnibus" bill by a razor-thin 214-212 margin. After recessing the House for several hours as they hunted for more support, GOP leaders finally called for a vote just after 9 p.m.

As members were being called back into the chamber to vote on the spending bill, it remained unclear whether there actually were enough votes to pass it.

Before concluding a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting before the vote, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was not telling her rank and file members to vote one way or the other.

"I'm giving you the leverage to do whatever you have to do. We have enough votes to show them never to do this again," she told them, according to a source in the room.

With the possibility still looming that the government would shut down at midnight, the White House stepped up its lobbying of members to support the omnibus bill and the Office of Management and Budget even held a conference call with federal agencies to discuss contingency planning.

"We continue to believe that time remains for Congress to pass full-year appropriations for FY 2015, and prevent a government shutdown," an OMB official said. "However, out of an abundance of caution, we are working with agencies and taking steps to prepare for all contingencies, including a potential lapse in funding."

Leaders of both parties huddled with their members in groups large and small Thursday afternoon and evening, trying to gauge support for the spending bill that is so big it has provisions disliked by everyone.

Rep. Chaka Fattah, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said the bill should be returned to its original form without campaign finance language boosting donation limits to political parties and the provision altering language in the Dodd-Frank financial services bill, though Republicans have vowed not to change the bill at that point.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough addressed House Democrats Thursday night and, Fattah said, made a "very strong pitch."

New York Rep. Steve Israel said McDonough made the case to House Democrats that the economy needs the consistency and the certainty of a one-year spending package.

While some Republicans have suggested 40 or 50 Democratic votes will be necessary to pass the measure, other lawmakers have floated higher estimates. "The Republicans are indicating they need 80 Democrats,"

"There are some people who really are not going to let Elizabeth Warren get to the left of them," said retiring Rep. Jim Moran, referring to the Massachusetts Democrat who has been especially critical of the bill.

One of the leaders of the opposition was Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. She was aided in her whip operation against the bill by more than two-dozen members.

Asked about the spending bill GOP leaders might bring up if the omnibus failed, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy avoided answering the question. "Why do Democrats want to shut down the government?" he asked.

Boehner was more dramatic later Thursday morning, telling reporters: "If we don't get finished today, we're going to be here until Christmas. You all know how this process works."

The White House gave the omnibus bill a key boost Thursday, announcing that the Obama administration supports its passage despite "the inclusion of ideological and special interest riders" as well as the decision to offer only short-term funding for the Department of Homeland Security. That cover from Obama should make it easier for at least some congressional Democrats to back the measure. The White House has also been calling House Democrats about the bill, according to sources.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at Thursday's press briefing that if the bill reaches Obama's desk, "he will sign it."

Rachel Roubein and James Oliphant contributed to this article.

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Funding Deadline Looms as GOP Mulls Fallback Plan

Billy House and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 20:11:00 -0500

House Republicans narrowly cleared a major hurdle Thursday morning in their race for the exits, winning a key procedural vote on a massive spending bill to keep the government afloat. But with the hours ticking away before a possible government shutdown, they remained unsure whether they could pass the bigger measure.

Passage of the rule governing debate for the "CROmnibus" bill by a razor-thin 214-212 margin means that the measure could come up for a final vote later Thursday, though Republican leaders temporarily recessed the House Thursday afternoon as they hunted for more support.

If necessary, the House and Senate would likely pass a two-day spending resolution Thursday night. But with the possibility still looming that the government would shut down at midnight, the White House stepped up its lobbying of members to support the omnibus bill and the Office of Management and Budget held a conference call with federal agencies to discuss contingency planning.

The rule passed earlier Thursday only after two Republicans, Reps. Kerry Bentivolio and Marlin Stutzman, were persuaded by leaders to switch their votes from no to yes. Every Democrat voted against the rule, but several are expected to back the underlying bill. Still, GOP leaders are considering a fallback plan to bring up a shorter continuing resolution if the larger bill fails to pass Thursday.

That fallback measure could last just until next week, offering GOP leaders time to formulate a new strategy. Or, one Republican aide said, it could last a full three months and push the entire spending package into the 114th Congress, when the party will control both chambers of Congress.

"We expect the bill to pass with bipartisan support today, but if it does not, we will pass a short-term CR to avoid a government shutdown," Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, said Thursday morning. "The length and other details of that bill have not been determined."

Asked about the spending bill GOP leaders might bring up if the omnibus fails, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy avoided answering the question. "Why do Democrats want to shut down the government?" he asked.

Boehner was more dramatic later Thursday morning, telling reporters: "If we don't get finished today, we're going to be here until Christmas. You all know how this process works."

Thursday's rule vote was a barometer of how much trouble party whips will have in corralling the votes to pass the omnibus. House Republicans are predicting that floor action will be finished by early afternoon, including a vote on a two-day CR to keep the government open through the weekend so the Senate can complete its work. (If the omnibus fails, then the House would move a CR that lasts longer than two days.)

The White House gave the omnibus bill a key boost Thursday, announcing that the Obama administration supports its passage despite "the inclusion of ideological and special interest riders" as well as the decision to offer only short-term funding for the Department of Homeland Security. That cover from President Obama should make it easier for at least some congressional Democrats to back the measure. The White House has also been calling House Democrats about the bill, according to sources.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at Thursday's press briefing that if the bill reaches Obama's desk, "he will sign it."

Still, opposition has accumulated since the Tuesday night unveiling of a spending bill that would keep the government funded through the fall, narrowing the already tight window that party whips have to round up support for the must-pass bill. House Republican aides have estimated that as many as 70 GOP lawmakers would vote against final passage of the omnibus, mostly driven by discontent that it does not directly attempt to block Obama's executive action that will grant work visas to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

The pending rule vote was causing the most nervousness early Thursday among House Republican leaders, during a closed-door meeting.

Boosting the anxiety was a call published on the conservative RedState blog for GOP members who oppose the underlying bill to also oppose the rule.

"If a Republican opposes the continuing resolution, s/he must oppose the rule," stated the item. "Call your congressman and tell him to oppose the rule on the CRomnibus."

But Bentivolio said he was convinced to change his vote by the argument that voting down the rule would have ceded leverage to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"I was the first one to vote no as a protest vote because I don't support amnesty," he said in a phone interview. "But when I realized that we were about to give Nancy Pelosi the floor, I said to hell with that and changed my vote."

Bentivolio, who lost reelection in a primary earlier this year, said he still plans to vote against the CRomnibus, however, and predicted that leadership will end up having to pass a short-term CR.

"Merry Christmas to 'em. They'll have to deal with it in the next Congress," he said.

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Terrorism Risk Insurance Plan Likely to Falter in the Senate

Billy House and Sarah Mimms, National Journal — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:53:11 -0500

The federal program set in place 12 years ago to help insurance companies cover Americans in case of terrorist attacks is likely to expire this month, as a bill extending the program faces almost certain death in the Senate this week.

Sen. Tom Coburn is the main reason: The Oklahoma Republican vowed Thursday to prevent his colleagues from bringing the measure up for a vote, as one of his last acts in Congress before his retirement begins later this month.

"There may not be any TRIA until January, the next Congress. I'm OK with that," Coburn said. "Quite frankly, I don't care whether TRIA happens or not. Because I believe that markets will fill in that void."

After months of negotiations over the Terrorism Risk Insurance program, the talks between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Sen. Chuck Schumer respectively, fell apart over the weekend. As a result, the House pulled TRIA out of the omnibus spending bill, a must-pass law that would have given cover to some of the program's more controversial addendums. But as a standalone bill with two unpopular riders, TRIA now has bipartisan opposition in the Senate, where passage appears to be extremely unlikely.

Here's the problem: In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, insurers had no idea how to cover individuals and businesses in the case of future terrorist strikes and many decided not to cover terrorism at all. Acts of terror are by their nature unpredictable both in their timing and the amount of damage, leaving insurance companies with little information on how to cover their clients. Without insurance, construction projects stalled and hurt real estate prices. So Congress stepped in with TRIA, providing a federal backstop for terrorism insurance, which allowed insurers to provide coverage at little cost to taxpayers.

TRIA opponents like Coburn argue that private insurers are now prepared to cover terrorist attacks on their own. In other words, if TRIA expires, the free market will fill in the void left by the federal program.

Even Coburn has allowed a TRIA reauthorization to move forward in the past. Earlier this year, the Senate passed a reauthorization with 93 members voting in favor. But this new authorization includes two provisions added by the House that has Coburn and even several Senate Democrats jumping ship.

Coburn has never been a fan of the insurance program, but he objects strongly to the addition of another rider to create a federal bureaucracy that would streamline licensing for insurance producers: the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act.

The previous Senate TRIA bill included that NARAB provision, but in order to get Coburn on board, the Senate version authorized NARAB for only two years, allowing Congress to debate the program again in 2016. The new House bill is a permanent authorization and would not allow states to opt out of the program. That, Coburn says, is the problem. "The insurance industry has sold it as, 'This is great for everyone.' OK, let's say that's true. So what's so wrong with giving them an opt-out if it's not great?" Coburn said. "If everybody agrees this is a perfect thing to do, why not enforce the 10th Amendment … that says that if a state doesn't want to do it, they can opt out?"

Coburn's objection alone could kill the bill. Under a mass of procedural requirements and with so much left on its plate for the final days of this session of Congress, it could take the Senate a week to deal with the TRIA bill as long as Coburn objects. And with several Democrats upset about the addition of a rider that undermines the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, there's little appetite in the Senate to stick around through next week to deal with the issue.

"I have leverage now. If they want to pass it, put the opt-out in and let's go to town," Coburn said, adding that neither Republican or Democratic leadership has contacted him about the issue.

Democrats, meanwhile, are generally supportive of TRIA, but several are furious about the Dodd-Frank provision House Republicans added to the bill and could pull their support even if leaders find a way to pacify Coburn. The language would clarify or change a provision in the Dodd-Frank law to free nonfinancial companies, like those involved in agriculture or energy, from having to comply with the same collateral and other rules for swaps in the derivative markets that are applied to banks.

"It's shameful that Republicans in the House would hold this important post-9/11 program hostage in a misguided attempt to roll back financial reforms that protect our economy from the kinds of risk that emerged during the last financial crisis," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a major advocate for Dodd-Frank, said in a statement.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said Thursday that the Dodd-Frank rollback "raises all kinds of problems" for many Democrats. "My understanding is that it's not going anywhere here," Levin said.

Schumer, for his part, seems to have a singular message for House Republicans: I told you so. Had TRIA remained a part of the omnibus, some members' objections on NARAB and even potentially the Dodd-Frank measure would have had to take a backseat to the need to keep the government funded.

"By playing games and refusing to pass a clean extension of terrorism insurance, the House Republicans have put terrorism insurance at risk," Schumer said in a statement, calling on the House to pass the TRIA bill that earned 93 votes in the Senate earlier this year. That bill lacks the Dodd-Frank provision and has just a two-year NARAB authorization.

With the House scheduled to leave for the holidays Thursday, the Senate won't be able to negotiate a clean version of the TRIA bill with the lower chamber. Unless Coburn and Senate Democrats change their minds, the program will expire on New Year's Day, leaving the next Congress to deal with the fallout.

A House GOP aide familiar with the two-chamber negotiations on the reauthorization scoffed at the notion that a fallback plan would emerge in that chamber. He asked why House Republicans would back off, given the bill's overwhelming 417-7 bipartisan passage in the chamber on Wednesday.

As for the Dodd-Frank change, some Republicans are depicting it as a clarification that is "Main Street" friendly.

House Financial Services Chairman Hensarling's office on Thursday declined to provide a comment on the Senate developments.

But his office did point to a statement Hensarling made on the House floor on Wednesday questioning Senate Democratic positioning against reopening Dodd-Frank language. Hensarling noted the Senate had tinkered with the bill before. He also argued that the "clarification" in the bill of the bank regulatory language adds an opportunity to "not only to bring some stability and certainty to our insurance markets, our builders, but our farmers and ranchers and small businesses and hurting families at this holiday season."

Hensarling and other House Republicans had been repeatedly warned that inclusion of the language would cause problems in the Senate.

Both Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, and Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York emphasized Tuesday before the House Rules Committee that Schumer was serious in his warnings that the addition of the end-user margin language would be "toxic" to Senate Democrats.

But Hensarling and other Republicans on the Rules Committee questioned why the two Democrats and others would argue against its inclusion in the terrorism-risk insurance bill, given its earlier passage this year in the chamber in a bipartisan vote.

Maloney conceded she had voted for the revamped regulatory language as a stand-alone provision. But she warned that inclusion of such an "extraneous" bill to TRIA that was never agreed on between Schumer and Hensarling would be "putting this entire package in jeopardy."

"Our side made several concessions to Mr. Hensarling in these negotiations. For example, we agreed to double the 'trigger' for when the federal backstop kicks in from $100 million to $200 million," Maloney said, noting that reauthorization of the program is "the number one priority for my district, which has been—and will continue to be—a terrorist target."

She added, "We also agreed to only a 6-year reauthorization, even though the Senate bill was a 7-year reauthorization.

"But we did not agree to add unrelated Dodd-Frank bills to TRIA. The reason we didn't add unrelated Dodd-Frank bills was that they make it very difficult to pass the Senate before TRIA expires," Maloney had said.

Rules Committee Democratic member Jim McGovern warned that inclusion of the language was prompting "a needless game of chicken on an important, critical matter."

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Lawmakers Unveil Details of Plan to Keep Government Open

Billy House, Sarah Mimms, and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 10:42:12 -0500

A $1 trillion spending bill to keep most of the government funded through next September—with the exception of the Homeland Security Department, which will be funded only through Feb. 27—was released Tuesday night following debates over dozens of policy riders affecting women's health, the environment, health care, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. The draft was completed only after a terrorism-insurance bill was split off onto a separate and still unresolved track.

"While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government," House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said in a joint statement Tuesday night.

But much work remained to be be done before Congress could leave town.

"No one wins from these cliffhanger fights we're having," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, though he added that he remains "optimistic that even Republicans don't want a shutdown."

Getting the omnibus bill through both chambers quickly will require a rare dose of bipartisanship; the House vote, in particular, could be tricky as Republican leaders look to attract Democratic votes to offset the expected opposition of some conservatives.

With current government funding expiring Thursday night, the House will bring to the floor a short-term continuing resolution, lasting just a few days, to buy the chambers more time to negotiate, according to a House GOP aide. Reid warned that senators could be forced to work through the weekend—and even, possibly, into next week—in order to resolve the spending issue.

Also on Reid's list of must-pass legislation is a bill to extend dozens of tax breaks that expired last year, the approval of more than a dozen of President Obama's nominees, and a reauthorization for the nation's defense programs. The defense bill hit a snag on Tuesday, further complicating the Senate's calendar as members prepare to leave town.

Sen. Tom Coburn objected to proceeding with the National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday over the attachment of a federal lands bill. Reid filed cloture on that measure later Tuesday, setting up a vote on final passage later this week.

Once the defense bill has passed, the Senate will move on to the spending bill and then take up the tax-extender package. In the interim, Reid said he wants the chamber to confirm several nominees, including nine judges, new directors for the Social Security Administration and the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the controversial nomination of Vivek Murthy to become the new surgeon general. Murthy's nomination faces the most issues, with even some conservative Democrats balking at his comments linking gun violence with health.

"There's a very, very good chance we'll be here this weekend," Reid said.

The House Republican Conference is slated to meet Wednesday morning, and GOP leaders hope to have the legislation ready by then so the conference can discuss it.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Tuesday he is not happy about the short-term DHS funding in the bill, and he expressed some concern about loading the legislation with extraneous measures, such as the pension bill or policy riders. But he signaled that he knows Republicans are counting on Democrats to provide at least some votes to pass the omnibus.

"The cleaner this bill is, the more likelihood there is of its passage," Hoyer said.

A path to a passable spending bill grew easier on Tuesday when House Republicans, culminating months of negotiations, decided to remove the reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act from the underlying bill. Instead, the lower chamber will pass TRIA, the government's backstop to businesses and other groups in the event of catastrophic terrorist attacks, as a separate measure. Negotiators had considered packaging the bill with an omnibus spending bill, but Senate Democrats refuse to budge on changes Republicans want regarding the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill.

Democrats are upset at the inclusion of a provision that would clarify that non-financial "end-users," such as main street businesses and farms, do not have to follow the same rules for derivatives markets applied to financial institutions. The measure passed the House this session 411-12.

"The Democrats' ideological and irrational zeal for Dodd-Frank is holding up a long-term reauthorization of TRIA," said a GOP aide. "Our side is trying to get a clarification—not a change— on Dodd-Frank's treatment of manufacturers, ranchers, and farmers."

A Senate Democratic aide dismissed that notion. "This is an attempt to kill the bill, pure and simple. Adding in an extraneous, unrelated Dodd-Frank issue that Democrats, and the administration, oppose to a bipartisan TRIA bill that has been carefully negotiated puts the future of TRIA in doubt," the aide said.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and GOP Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, agreed late Monday on the particulars of a TRIA reauthorization itself, in a deal to extend the program for another six years. The deal would raise the threshold where federal cost-sharing for insurance kicks in for damages from a terrorist strike to $200 million.

Initially enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the program is set to expire at the end of the year. It has had a $100 million threshold for when federal help would kick in. Business groups, property owners, and other groups have been urging Congress not to allow a lapse that they say would undermine construction projects and increase the difficulty in acquiring the needed insurance.

Tuesday night, the House Rules Committee advanced the chamber's version of a bill to reauthorize TRIA, which expires at the end of the year. Floor action on the measure has been set for Wednesday. But there remained no agreement with the Senate for action there.

Schumer, according to Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, and other Democrats, has said that inclusion of that provision or other Dodd-Frank language is "toxic" in the Senate. In short, the measure is threatening to be a poison pill to two-chamber passage.

Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, a Rules Committee member, said he believed getting the terrorism insurance reauthorized before the current version expires is too important for lawmakers to be, in his words, "playing a game of chicken at the last minute."

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Federal Spending Bill Slowed by Last-Minute Additions

Billy House, Sarah Mimms, and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 15:47:09 -0500

Congressional negotiators were nearing a deal Tuesday on massive spending legislation that would avert a government shutdown and bring the 113th Congress to a close, but they are bumping up against the seasonal effort to make year-end legislation a Christmas tree, ornamented with a wish-list of legislative add-ons.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid emphasized Tuesday afternoon that negotiations over the spending bill were ongoing, citing a litany of nearly 100 policy riders pushed by House Republicans affecting women's health, the environment, health care and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. "No one wins from these cliffhanger fights we're having," Reid said.

But, the Majority Leader added, he remains "optimistic that even Republicans don't want a shutdown."

With just two days left before the current government funding expires, the House will bring to the floor a short-term continuing resolution, lasting just a few days, to buy the chambers more time to negotiate, according to a House GOP aide. Reid warned that members of the Senate could be forced to work through the weekend -- and even, possibly, into next week -- in order to resolve the spending issue.

Also on Reid's list of must-pass legislation is a bill to extend dozens of tax breaks that expired last year, the approval of more than a dozen of President Obama's nominees and a reauthorization for the nation's defense programs. The defense bill hit a snag on Tuesday, further complicating the Senate's calendar as members prepare to leave town.

Sen. Tom Coburn objected to proceeding with the National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday over the attachment of a federal lands bill. Reid said he would file cloture on that measure later Tuesday, setting up a vote on final passage later this week.

Once the defense bill has passed, the Senate will move on to the spending bill and then take up the tax extender package. In the interim, Reid said he wants the chamber to confirm several nominees, including nine judges, new directors for the Social Security Administration and the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the controversial nomination of Vivek Murthy to become the new Surgeon General. Murthy's nomination faces the most issues, with even some conservative Democrats balking at his comments linking gun violence with health.

"There's a very, very good chance we'll be here this weekend," Reid said.

"The Democrats' ideological and irrational zeal for Dodd-Frank is holding up a long-term reauthorization of TRIA," said a GOP aide. "Our side is trying to get a clarification – not a change – on Dodd-Frank's treatment of manufacturers, ranchers and farmers."

House leaders are aiming to release the omnibus spending bill by Tuesday evening, so the House can vote Thursday and let the Senate get to work. Clearing both chambers so quickly will require a rare dose of bipartisanship; the House vote, in particular, could be tricky as Republican leaders look to attract Democratic votes to offset the expected opposition of some conservatives.

After months of negotiations, congressional appropriators have done all they can to forge an agreement on the spending bill, leaving the final details to leadership as they seek to piece together a package that can earn sufficient bipartisan support in both chambers. For the most part, appropriators have navigated hundreds of policy amendments sought by members and come to an agreement both parties can stomach.

Appropriators have designed an 11-part omnibus and a short-term spending bill for the Homeland Security Department, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said Monday evening.

Yet, in the final week, a few other policy issues have brought the process to a slow crawl. Disagreements over a pension measure and changes to the Dodd-Frank law could not be settled by the committee, leaving leaders Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi to wrap up the discussions.

Mikulski and other members of the Senate committee said they were unsure whether Congress would make its deadline to fund the government by midnight on Thursday or need to pass a one- or two-day continuing resolution to extend the timeline. The Senate could take up and pass the spending bill shortly after it leaves the House, but only if all senators agree. It was unclear Tuesday morning if Sen. Ted Cruz and others who have expressed disappointment in the bill would push for additional debate time, forcing a continuing resolution and sending the Senate home later than planned. Senators could push debate over the bill well into next week.

On TRIA, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, agreed late Monday on the particulars of a TRIA reauthorization itself, in a deal to extend the program for another six years. The deal would raise the threshold at which point federal cost-sharing for insurance kicks in for damages from a terrorist strike to $200 million

Initially enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the program is set to expire at the end of the year. It has had a $100 million threshold for when federal help would kick in. Business groups, property owners and other groups have been urging Congress not to allow a lapse they say would undermine construction projects and increase the difficulty in acquiring the needed insurance.

The House Republican Conference is slated to meet Wednesday morning, and GOP leaders hope to have the legislation ready by then so the conference can discuss it.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Tuesday he is not happy about the short-term DHS funding in the bill, and he expressed some concern about loading the bill with extraneous measures, such as the pension bill or policy riders. But he signaled that he knows Republicans are counting on Democrats to provide at least some votes to pass the omnibus.

"The cleaner this bill is, the more likelihood there is of its passage," he said.

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The Final Goal of the 113th Congress: Keep the Government Open

Billy House, Sarah Mimms, and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:18:35 -0500

Lawmakers scrambling to conclude the 113th Congress face a daunting list of unfinished lame-duck business this week, chiefly overcoming strategic and policy-driven challenges to keep the government open beyond Thursday.

The House will vote this week on a massive appropriations bill, with Republican leaders likely to rely on Democratic votes, after struggling to compile a bill that would unify their conference and pass the Senate.

If the House passes its so-called CRomnibus—floor action is expected to occur by midweek—the Senate could take it up immediately, sending the measure to the president's desk before Thursday's deadline to fund the government.

But that will require an agreement between not only the two Senate leaders, but every member of the chamber. Democrats are concerned that lingering unease with the House Republican bill among conservative senators, most notably Sen. Ted Cruz, could force them to overcome a number of procedural hurdles before passing the bill.

The worst-case scenario: Cruz or another member objects to ending debate on the spending measure, meaning passage could take several days, pushing the funding bill past Thursday's deadline and into the weekend or perhaps the following week.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers is expected to unveil legislation Monday that will fund most of the government through September with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which will be funded only into February.

The short-term funding for DHS is meant to give Republicans an opportunity to obstruct President Obama's executive order that will grant work visas to millions of undocumented immigrants. But conservatives have been pressing leadership for immediate action choking off funding to implement the order. Absent that language, dozens of Republicans will defect on the bill.

Leadership "said we would fight this tooth and nail. I don't see this as tooth and nail," said Rep. Matt Salmon, who plans to vote against the bill. "The level of frustration with process right now is pretty significant. Our voters who sent us back here in a resounding way … expect us to be a little bit more forceful in our fight."

House leaders, however, say they are limited in their options and want to push the fight over the executive order into next year, when both chambers are controlled by Republicans. In order to pass the spending bill, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said she will supply the requisite votes from her caucus, so long as rest of the legislation is not objectionable.

"If the risk is to shut down government, we're just not going to be party to that," Pelosi said Friday. "If the bill is anything we can support, we will."

Left uncertain is the fate of scores of policy riders that appropriators have been negotiating. In the scope of the discussions was everything from a ban on federal funding for abortion to several Environmental Protection Agency regulations to whether the District of Columbia will be able to enact its ballot initiative legalizing marijuana.

Aside from the spending bill, lawmakers will be seeking to wrap up other important items, with a few more potential speed bumps looming.

After passing in the House last week, the National Defense Authorization Act is expected to see Senate action. That bill, which outlines broad policy and what the Defense Department can and cannot spend money on, faces potential fights on amendments and other attachments. Retiring Sen. Tom Coburn has said he will hold up the bill if extraneous public-lands provisions are left in, such as measures authorizing new National Park units, expanding wilderness areas, or creating new National Heritage Areas.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is hoping to attach a proposal to curb military sexual assaults, and other lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul, are hoping to bring up an Authorization for Use of Military Force proposal. Any changes to the bill would require it to be sent back to the House, and would complicate, if not kill, the compromise reached by leadership of the Armed Services committees.

Outgoing Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin has urged members to vote on the bill without amendments, and despite the potential hurdles the bill is expected to pass.

As of late last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling were closing in on a two-chamber compromise on renewing the terrorism risk-insurance program, which has been a point of contention for months. Initially enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the program is set to expire at the end of 2014, and pressure has mounted from a host of industry groups over maintaining the government's role as an insurer of last resort.

Heading into the weekend, the tentative compromise was to continue the insurance program for another six years and raise the threshold at which the federal cost-sharing for insurance kicks in to $200 million in damages from a terrorist strike.

Later in the week, the Senate is expected to also approve a tax-extenders package that was passed by the House last week.

The Senate also kicks off the week with a few additional confirmation votes on some of the president's nominees, as the upper chamber awaits instruction from the House on some of those other big-ticket items they'll need to pass before leaving Washington for the holidays.

More than 100 nominees are still awaiting Senate approval before Republicans take control of the Senate next year. Among them is the nominee to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sarah Saldaña, whose apparently easy nomination has been complicated by Obama's executive action on immigration. Given the new Republican opposition to her nomination, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could put Saldaña on the calendar this week to approve her nomination under a Democratic majority.

Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has a big week ahead of them, after a last-minute push by Paul and Democratic members of the committee forced the panel to take up an Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq and Syria.

The committee will hold a hearing on the matter early in the week, in which Republicans hope to hear from Secretary of State John Kerry, before voting on the AUMF midweek. Given the hectic floor schedule this week, it's possible, but unlikely, that the full Senate will consider the issue before the next Congress.

BUDGET and TAXES

Despite some Democratic angst on the tax-extension measure, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and other Democrats who pushed for a longer extension now expect that the one-year measure adopted Wednesday in the House will pass easily.

The nearly $42 billion package would renew more than 50 tax breaks, many of which expired at the end of 2013, until just the end of this year. But doing so will allow businesses and individuals to use them in their upcoming tax returns for 2014 early next year.

The list of incentives is wide-ranging—from business breaks for research and development, wind production, and corporate expensing, to others like breaks for commuters and teachers and continuation of state and local sales taxes. It also renews some very narrowly tailored items that for years have been controversial—including breaks for NASCAR and other motor speedways, racehorse owners, and Puerto Rico rum production.

The one-year extension was put together after a broader deal being hashed out by Reid and Republicans, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, was scuttled amid a veto threat from the White House, which claimed that package was too tilted toward business and corporate interests over working-class taxpayers.

DEFENSE and NATIONAL SECURITY

The National Defense Authorization Act isn't the only defense-related topic on the agenda this week, as lawmakers plan to continue digging into the administration's strategy to combat the Islamic State. Sen. Robert Menendez, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, said that his committee will hold a hearing on an AUMF. The New Jersey Democrat has been vocal about his belief that lawmakers should debate the proposal, and suggested that the administration is being uncooperative.

Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to testify Tuesday on an AUMF before the Foreign Relations Committee, with committee members expected to vote on a proposal this week. But the vote would likely be largely symbolic, with the full Senate not expected to take up the proposal before it leaves for the holiday recess. Republican leaders in both chambers have said that they want to wait until the next Congress to tackle the legislation, which sets the legal boundaries for U.S. military operations. And House Speaker John Boehner believes a draft of the proposal should first come from the White House.

A Foreign Relations subcommittee will also examine the humanitarian fallout from ISIS with officials from the State Department and and the U.S. Agency for International Development expected to testify. And on the House Side, Brett McGurk, deputy special presidential envoy for the coalition against ISIS, will brief members of the Foreign Affairs Committee on international efforts to counter the terrorist organization.

In other areas of foreign policy, members of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will likely get the last word from this Congress on Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the United States is expected to end its combat mission later this month. Officials from the State Department and USAID are expected to testify, and lawmakers are likely to focus on the U.S. role in Afghanistan after 2014 and Pakistan's role in helping to combat terrorism in the region.

The Taliban has seen a resurgence in parts of Afghanistan over the past year, and Rep. Steve Chabot said in a statement ahead of the hearing that the threat "is further exacerbated by its neighbor, Pakistan."

Meanwhile, time is running out for the effort to get veterans suicide-prevention legislation passed this year. An advocacy group, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, tried Thursday to keep up pressure on senators by delivering a petition to Reid. The group urged him to bring a bill, the Clay Hunt SAV Act, directly to the floor. But, while the House could vote on the bill Tuesday, it's unclear if, or when, the legislation would get a vote in the Senate.

Advocates had hoped the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee would take up the legislation, which was introduced last month, but with likely only one week left, members aren't currently scheduled to have a hearing.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will also try to push through another round of nominees before heading home for the holidays. Committee members will consider the nominations of Elissa Slotkin, to be assistant Defense secretary for international security affairs; Robert Scher, to be assistant Defense secretary for strategy, plans, and capabilities; David Berteau, to be assistant Defense secretary for logistics and materiel readiness; and Alissa Starzak, to be general counsel of the Department of the Army.

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Internal GOP Tensions Simmer Over Terrorism Insurance

Billy House, National Journal — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:10:55 -0500

House and Senate negotiators remained at an impasse Tuesday on a deal to reauthorize a terrorism-risk insurance program, amid frustration within the House GOP conference and from business groups over the lack of movement.

Tensions bubbled again in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, even as party leaders were preparing to take fallback action with a short-term reauthorization bill for the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA, by the end of this lame-duck session.

As part of this strategy, House Republicans will also seek to counter arguments that simply going along with a Senate Democratic version to reauthorize the program for seven years—approved 93-4 in July with nearly unanimous Senate Republican support—would be a better response.

"If Senate Democrats continue to insist on their 'my way or the highway' approach, I fear a long-term reauthorization may have to wait until the next Congress," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling warned in a statement.

Initially enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the federal cost-sharing program that provides a backstop in the event of another catastrophic attack is set to expire at the end of 2014.

On Tuesday, during a closed-door gathering of House Republicans, Rep. Peter King of New York spoke out about the urgency for the House to act—and openly questioned the continued opposition by some GOP colleagues, led by Hensarling, to the Senate-passed bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.

That Senate measure would maintain the existing $100 million threshold for federal insurance to kick in and bring only minor changes, while reauthorizing the program for seven years. The federal backstop has never been needed, so far. And King argued that the program to date has not cost the government anything.

Even so, Hensarling and other Republicans oppose the Senate approach, and say bigger changes are needed to protect taxpayers. They want to raise the "trigger" for the federal aid to $500 million in damages in most types of attacks and make other alterations, as reflected in a bill passed by Hensarling's committee to extend the program for five years.

The business community has, for the most part, opposed Hensarling's approach. And Republican leaders haven't yet brought his bill to the floor for a vote—a sign of uncertainty that it would have even enough Republican support to pass.

Meanwhile, talks between Hensarling and Schumer have not yet yielded a compromise.

At one point during Tuesday's closed-door meeting, King even pointed out to colleagues that conservative stalwart Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky joined nearly all Senate Republicans to support the Senate version. King also noted that the NFL, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR—citing concerns about stadiums being targeted in a terror attack—are among those who have joined a wide coalition of business groups urging Congress to act.

After his questioning of the ongoing opposition to the Senate bill, King says, he heard no one at the meeting disagree with him, or give a rebuttal.

But others said Hensarling did eventually respond during the meeting—only that King had left the room by then. Some in the room say the Texan was already fuming even before the meeting over a letter sent Monday by King and 44 other House Republicans to party leaders, urging action on renewing the terror insurance program. That letter had been circulated by Financial Services Committee member Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, a member of the Tea Party Caucus.

When Hensarling spoke, according to a source in the room, he took stark issue with the argument from the Senate and others that the House should pass the Senate bill because it passed that chamber with such significant bipartisan support.

Hensarling noted that the House itself also has passed dozens of bills with equally overwhelming bipartisan support—measures that the Senate has refused even to bring up for votes. So that argument doesn't hold much water, he argued.

Hensarling then told his colleagues, "That is why we are working to add several bipartisan bills the House passed as part of TRIA."

In a statement later released from his office, Hensarling said, "I share my colleagues' frustrations on TRIA negotiations because most Members support a long-term reauthorization. But Senate Democrats refuse to negotiate, even after I offered a compromise that moves more than halfway towards the Senate's TRIA bill with reasonable reforms. They not only rejected my compromise, they refuse—refuse—to negotiate."

Meanwhile, Marty DePoy, a spokesman for the Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism, on Tuesday said his group remains hopeful that an agreement can be reached to reauthorize TRIA for the long term. His group argues that each time TRIA nears its expiration, business owners struggle with the uncertainty and fear that they may no longer be able to obtain the coverage they need. The coalition's roster includes a wide range of members, from the American Bankers Insurance Association to the Institute of Real Estate Management, the Association of Art Museum Directors, and Hilton Worldwide.

"We have less than two weeks left this Congress, and there is widespread agreement among members of the House and Senate that a multi-year reauthorization of the program is critical," DePoy said in a statement. "A short-term fix would be potentially devastating to US businesses. Frankly, it's a risk we can't afford to take. Congress needs to act now."

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Endgame Negotiations Intensify as Defense, Tax Deals Near

Billy House, Sarah Mimms, and Daniel Newhauser, National Journal — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:56:03 -0500

With so much left for Congress to do before adjourning for the year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned senators Monday that they should prepare to stay in Washington for an extra week, while House Republicans prepared to poll their members on whether they should respond to President Obama's immigration order before heading home.

Senators have been operating under the assumption that they would break for the rest of the year in the next two weeks, by Dec. 12. But Reid warned in a floor speech Monday: "We may have to be here a third week, and everyone should understand that. ... We may have to be here the week before Christmas and hopefully ... not into the Christmas holiday, but there are things we have to get done."

The implied threat: Put your heads down and get this done, or we'll all be here through the holidays.

Members still have to pass a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown, slated to begin on Dec. 11 if Congress does not act. Also on Reid's list of priorities before the end of the year—and Democrats' majority—are a reauthorization of the National Defense Authorization Act, a number of the administration's nominees, including seven to the Department of Energy, and a package to extend a number of tax breaks that expired at the end of last year.

Both the NDAA and the tax-extenders package appeared close to settled on Monday.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin said he and House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon would be presenting an NDAA reauthorization bill Tuesday morning or sooner. Levin indicated they had compromised on a dispute over military benefit cuts, though he would not hint at the solution they reached. "We still have to present it to our bodies," Levin said. "That's not a minor issue."

Levin huddled with fellow Democrats on the Armed Services Committee after votes on Monday evening, just off the Senate floor. There, he presented the package which he said includes additional funding for the administration's fight against ISIS. In order to pass the bill, Levin said, the NDAA will be presented in both chambers without any amendments for fear that any stray additions could kill the overall package. "It's not a way to legislate, but it's where we're at," he said.

The NDAA will not include a provision pushed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who has fought in recent days for Congress to reconsider her amendment to prevent military sexual assaults and pull the adjudication thereof out of the chain of command. Levin called the inability to include amendments like Gillibrand's "unfortunate," but noted that several sexual-assault provisions will be included in the final bill.

Gillibrand huddled with Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, both of whom support the measure, after the meeting. The New Yorker plans to host a press conference on the issue Tuesday, and Blumenthal said that they would continue to push for consideration.

Congress has passed an NDAA every year for the last 53 years, and with Levin and McKeon retiring this year, members are reluctant to break that streak. House leadership aides said they are awaiting McKeon's text, but that there is a chance it could be taken up as a suspension vote as early as Thursday.

At the same time, House Republicans geared up to move a one-year extension of dozens of popular business and individual tax breaks that expired at the end of 2013. The package will be attached to the Achieving Better Life Experience Act, a bill allowing the parents of disabled children to open tax-free savings accounts, which has broad bipartisan support in both chambers.

House Republicans were preparing Monday night to post this one-year version of the extender bill online for public viewing. The House's version would simply extend the wide array of more than 50 breaks that have not yet been renewed just until the end of December 2014—a move to allow businesses and individuals to claim them on their 2014 tax returns.

Movement in the House comes after a veto threat last week from the White House against a broader, longer-term deal between Republicans, Reid, and some other Democrats, on the contention it was too tilted toward well-connected corporations. The majority leader has since taken a backseat in those negotiations, allowing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden to work with House Financial Services Chairman Dave Camp to devise a new deal before year's end. Wyden's office did not respond to requests for comment Monday, and it was unclear whether he played a role in the House's decision to move forward on a one-year extension.

But it appears that the House legislation will have little trouble passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. "We wouldn't declare that dead on arrival. ... That's always been the counterargument of those who didn't want a deal," a Senate Democratic leadership aide said. "But we wouldn't be reflexively opposed to that."

Wyden said that he's been talking to colleagues in both political parties but declined to take a position Monday night on a one-year tax extender. He told reporters repeatedly that he wouldn't negotiate in public on the bill and that "we've got quite a ways to go. This game is not over." If the House sends over a one-year bill, Wyden said, "we'll deal with that when we see it."

The House Republican Conference, meanwhile, will meet Tuesday morning, and the meeting's chief concern will be how to fund the government. House appropriators have been working for weeks on an omnibus bill that would fund all government agencies for one year, and have unequivocally stated their preference for going that route and relying on a bipartisan vote to pass the bill.

Many in the GOP Conference, however, want to act to stymie President Obama's immigration executive order. An option still under discussion at the leadership table is to fund every government agency for a year, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which would receive only a short-term funding extension. DHS is tasked with giving work visas to the millions of undocumented immigrants eligible under Obama's order.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has vowed to withhold Democratic votes from any such bill, and it remains unclear whether Republicans could pass it alone, over the objection of some in the conference who want Speaker John Boehner to act more aggressively to combat the immigration order.

In order to appease those voices, leadership will push a separate bill, authored by Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida, that would state that the president does not have unilateral authority to exempt immigrants from deportation if they are in the country illegally. Whether the bill, along with a full or partial appropriations extension, will mollify the voices in the conference calling for tougher action remains to be seen. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas and a group of border hawks, the Congressional Border Security Caucus, will meet Tuesday morning ahead of the full GOP Conference meeting to consider a strategy of their own.

In the meantime, the Senate still has a lengthy list of nominees to push through before Democrats lose control of the upper chamber. With the majority of the noncontroversial nominees already confirmed, Reid has begun bringing up nominations with less—in some cases much less—Republican support starting this week. With the nuclear option in place, none of the nominations are likely to fail. But Republicans can refuse to make any deals with Democrats on reducing cloture time, potentially keeping their colleagues in the majority in Washington for a few more days while they head home for the holidays.

Alex Brown and Rachel Roubein contributed to this article.

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Spending, Immigration, and Tax Fights Will Dominate Final Days of 113th Congress

Billy House and Sarah Mimms — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 09:57:54 -0500

Lawmakers reconvene Monday for the final two weeks of the 113th Congress, with some Republicans clamoring to use the power of the purse to block President Obama's executive action on immigration and Democrats warning that such a strategy could lead to another government shutdown.

House and Senate appropriators this week will work to finalize details on a so-called omnibus measure tying together all 12 annual spending bills in a package lasting until next Sept. 30, the start of a new fiscal year. They face a Dec. 11 deadline for passage of such a measure, because that's when a temporary bill that has been keeping government funded and operating expires.

But smooth sailing in these final days of the postelection lame-duck session appears anything but certain, given Republicans' anger over Obama's announcement earlier this month that he will take action to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

There is a contentious push to pass at least some of the 12 spending bills through a separate, shorter continuing resolution lasting only until mid-February—dubbed a "CRomnibus" strategy. The idea is to leave open for the new Congress—in which Republicans will control both the Senate and the House—a chance to handcuff Obama's immigration plans.

That talk continues even as disagreement remains within the GOP over whether there any budgetary avenues are available for such congressional maneuvering. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky has said the primary agency for implementing Obama's executive order, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is almost entirely self-funded through fees it collects and cannot be defunded by lawmakers. But a Congressional Research Service report requested by Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions of Alabama suggests that Congress could still block such funding, although such an action might have to be executed on an authorization bill rather than an appropriations measure.

The House Homeland Security Committee is to meet Tuesday in a hearing focused on how administrative action could affect border security, with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson set to testify. Later in the day, the House Judiciary Committee is to hold a titled "President Obama's Executive Overreach on Immigration."

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has promised to introduce a bill authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State. The legislation would also end the current authorization for military force in Iraq and would set an expiration date for the authorization covering military actions in Afghanistan of one year after the bill is signed by the president. It is unlikely that Congress will agree to such an authorization in the final days of a lame-duck session, but lawmakers still have to sign off on a funding request from the Pentagon to train and equip Syrian rebels.

Other unfinished business includes action on the National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed a version of the legislation earlier this year, but the Senate Armed Services Committee has yet to bring its bill, which must clear the upper chamber before the end of the year, to the floor.

Also heading into next week, the fate of dozens of expired or soon-to-expire tax breaks remains uncertain. The White House on Tuesday threatened a presidential veto on a roughly $450 billion, 10-year plan that aides to Majority Leader Harry Reid were devising with House Republicans. The administration and other congressional Democrats say the plan is too skewed toward making permanent corporate and other business provisions, without similarly addressing tax credits for the middle class and working families.

More certain will be action on the Senate floor regarding several nominations, as early as Monday night. Among those set to be included are Obama's picks for ambassadors to Hungary and Argentina, both of whom have made some embarrassing gaffes regarding the countries they would be living in.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday to consider several nominees for assistant secretary positions at the Defense Department, just a week after Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his resignation.

The week's activities in Washington are to be punctuated with Saturday's Senate election runoff in Louisiana, pitting against each other Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Bill Cassidy; and two House races—including the contest for Cassidy's seat that features former Gov. and ex-convict Edwin Edwards and Garret Graves, a Republican who worked as an adviser to Gov. Bobby Jindal.

BUDGET and TAXES

Congressional appropriators are hoping to get their finalized omnibus spending package to top House and Senate leaders by the weekend, and then, next week, have the House take up the bill first, then the Senate.

But the calls from several House Republicans to scrap some or all of the omnibus in favor of a short-term continuing resolution are rocking the boat. Senate leaders and appropriators in both chambers have rejected the idea of using a shorter-term bill so the party can have the opportunity early next year to exact spending cuts in response to the president's executive action on immigration.

But it's unclear which voices will prevail when members return to Washington.

Some Republicans, as well as Democrats, question the idea of extending battles over the 2015 budget into early next year—when the new GOP-dominated Congress will also begin discussions in March on a fiscal 2016 spending plan.

Democrats, for their part, have been busy casting such a potential GOP maneuver as a recipe for a second government shutdown this session.

"House Democrats have fought against Republican attempts to shut down the government. Now, House Republicans are seeking to disguise their efforts, threatening our national security in order to undermine the president's clear legal authority," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a statement. "We will not be enablers to a Republican Government Shutdown, partial or otherwise."

The upcoming days also could present several other side issues tied to spending—even though the overall spending amounts are to be maintained so that spending for 2015 continues to conform to the total cap of $1.014 trillion set under the bipartisan agreement worked out by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan.

Those other issues run from congressional skepticism over the amount of Obama's $6.2 billion request to combat Ebola, to potential action to block the Washington D.C. City Council from spending money to implement a newly passed initiative allowing small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Meanwhile, the clash between Obama and congressional negotiators on a tax-break extender package that has highlighted some ongoing tensions between the White House and Reid and his staff, as their party is about to lose control of the Senate in January. If the more than 50 tax breaks for businesses and individuals—most of which expired last year—are not renewed by Dec. 31, taxpayers will not be able to claim them for the 2014 tax year.

One potential option could be a bill to renew most of the items for one year retroactively. That would set up discussions over a longer-term approach next year, but Democrats may feel under the gun because those talks would be controlled by not only a Republican-controlled House, but also a GOP-held Senate.

DEFENSE and NATIONAL SECURITY

Leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are still working out the details of a National Defense Authorization Act compromise bill.

The two sides are stuck over differences in military benefits in the two chambers' versions of the bill. Inthe House version, lawmakers rejected Pentagon-proposed cuts to housing benefits, as well as an increase in medical co-pays for troops. But the Senate committee's version, which never reached the floor for a vote, keeps the changes intact.

The informal negotiating group had hoped to release its NDAA before Thanksgiving, but the snag has kept an agreement out of reach. It's hardly the first time the bill—which authorizes appropriations and lays out broad policy priorities—has gone down to the wire. But Congress has managed to pass it for the past 53 years, and lawmakers have said they are hopeful it will get done.

In the fight against ISIS, it is unlikely that lawmakers will vote on a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force in the final days of the lame-duck session. But they do have to sign off on a funding request from the Pentagon to train and equip Syrian rebels. Congress included authorization for the Defense Department to start the program as part of the short-term spending bill passed earlier this year that expires on Dec. 11.

In addition, lawmakers still have to decide on the administration's request for an additional $5.6 billion to fight ISIS as part of its Overseas Contingency Operations budget.

The Senate is also expected to continue its end-of-the-year push to vote on a backlog of ambassador nominations. And the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be adding to that list on Tuesday. Senators will hold a hearing for Rahul Verma, nominated to be ambassador to India, and Peter Michael McKinley, nominated to be ambassador to Afghanistan.

And after a pair of hearings before the Thanksgiving recess on veterans suicide-prevention and mental health, legislation could be gaining traction. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, said in a statement that he would work to get a bill passed by the end of the year. But it's unclear when, or if, the committee—which hasn't had a markup hearing so far this year—would take up a bill.

Jordain Carney, Jason Plautz and Sophie Novack contributed to this article.

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Pelosi Compares Obama Immigration Order to Emancipation Proclamation

Billy House, National Journal — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:45:53 -0500

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is drawing a parallel between President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and President Obama's planned executive actions on immigration reform.

"Does the public know the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order?" Pelosi asked at a news conference Thursday morning.

Pelosi raised the notion as she was fending off questions about warnings from congressional Republican that Obama could be about to overstep his bounds, both politically and legally.

Obama is scheduled to deliver a prime-time address on his plans Thursday night, and he will head to Las Vegas for a Friday speech on the topic. Pelosi said she will be traveling with Obama to Nevada.

Like other Democrats and immigration-reform advocates, Pelosi has been insisting that what Obama is about to do in offering legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants is nothing more than what other presidents—from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush—did, the latter two in deferring the removal of certain immigrants.

But on Thursday, Pelosi elevated her argument a novel step—reminding listeners that Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order. It declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

House Republicans on Thursday continued circling their wagons as they tried to come up with a response, with some suggesting that what the president is planning to announce will include actions not authorized by law.

Some Republicans say that defunding certain aspects of government operations that would be needed to carry out the actions is one way Congress could react, or that legal actions against the move could be taken.

A few opponents are suggesting even that censure or impeachment of the president should not be taken off of the table.

At the news conference, Pelosi and other Democrats dismissed claims that Republicans, having just won control of both the House and Senate for the session that begins in January, are right to argue that Obama should wait for the new Congress to take up immigration reform.

Rep. Louise Slaughter chimed in that, in her recollection, such an outcry did not happen when earlier presidents took such action.

"It's because it's Obama," she said.

(Top image via Orhan Cam /Shutterstock.com)

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Walz Abandons Bid for Top Veterans' Affairs Panel Slot

Billy House, National Journal — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:52:11 -0500

Rep. Tim Walz has backed off his effort to become the top Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, amid questions raised over his status as a member of the panel.

Walz had let it be known earlier this month he planned to challenge Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida for the ranking-member seat on the panel, to succeed Rep. Michael Michaud of Maine, who is leaving Congress.

Walz is a four-term congressman from Minnesota, and a major in the Army National Guard. His congressional website describes him as "the highest ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress."

And Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont did present Walz's candidacy for ranking member to the House Democratic Steering Committee, controlled by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

But according to members of the committee, Welch later withdrew Walz's name, following discussions about the congressman's exact status on the committee, including his future status.

Brown is next-in-line in seniority to succeed Michaud, while Walz is the third-longest serving committee member. And among Brown's allies are fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have been battling with Pelosi against what they see as an erosion of seniority as a benchmark for selecting committee leaders in recent years.

But some outside groups, such as Concerned Veterans for America, asked Pelosi to reconsider her support for Brown for the post, and Walz had emerged among the potential alternatives.

In a letter to Pelosi released Wednesday, the CVA accused Brown of public statements that have "consistently minimized and dismissed the deep cultural and structural problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs."

What turned out to be the hurdle for Walz, according to those with knowledge of the Steering Committee discussion, was that he actually has relied on a special waiver to stay on the Veterans' panel while he serves on two other committees—Agriculture and Transportation.

There is a two-committee limit, and technically, the waiver lowers Walz's ranking on the third committee. In addition, such waivers must be renewed each session—and committee-seat ratios have not yet been worked out with Republicans for the 114th session. (The GOP is likely to push for more panel seats, at the expense of Democrats, because of the midterm election results.)

So, in a sense, Walz faced the prospect of not even being on the committee that he wanted to chair next session.

Later Wednesday, Walz said the matter had been resolved, though he did not give details.

"We are obviously disappointed," he said in a statement, "but this has always been about doing all I can to advocate for and serve veterans and their families. I will continue to do that. I appreciate the support I received from Democratic Members of Congress and veterans and their advocates.... I congratulate Rep. Brown on becoming Ranking Member of the VA Committee and wish her the best."

A comment from a Pelosi spokesman provided a glimpse of how the matter was worked out.

"Leader Pelosi is very grateful to Congressman Walz for his leadership as highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress," said the spokesman, Drew Hammill.

"Congressman Walz has accepted the leader's offer to serve on the Veterans' Committee in the 114th Congress and to chair the quarterly [Veterans Service Organization] roundtables that the leader has organized and held regularly since 2006," Hammill said.

(Image via Flickr user Terry Ross)

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Pipeline Politics Dominate Pre-Thanksgiving Action in Congress

Billy House and Sarah Mimms, National Journal — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 10:20:30 -0500

With Congress's turkey-week break just days away, the Senate enters this second week of a lame-duck session set to decide on bringing the Keystone XL pipeline closer to reality. Meanwhile, storm clouds brew in both chambers over a spending bill and President Obama's promised action to protect immigrants from deportation.

After the House passed a measure authorizing completion of the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday with 31 Democrats and all but one Republican signing on, the Senate will take up the legislation Tuesday. Some drama exists over whether it will pass.

The Senate may also vote as soon as Tuesday on a bill to curtail the government's most controversial domestic-surveillance program. Majority Leader Harry Reid unexpectedly filed cloture last week on the USA Freedom Act, a bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy that would effectively end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone metadata.

The rest of this pre-Thanksgiving week's floor activity includes House action on three GOP messaging bills tied to the Environmental Protection Agency, including one to address so-called secret science by blocking regulations unless data is made public. There's also a Senate vote on a House-revised version of a child care and development block-grant bill, and action is expected on executive and judicial nominations.

Lawmakers in both chambers will also continue to focus on ISIS, as they grapple over a potential new Authorization for Use of Military Force and the administration's request for an additional $5.6 billion in war funds. Congress also will hold a series of hearings this week on the Ebola outbreak that continues to ravage West Africa.

And Republicans will continue to angle over a response to Obama's anticipated unilateral action on immigration. Potential strategies include everything from filing a separate lawsuit over the president's authority to prevent deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants to attaching language to a must-pass spending bill due by Dec. 11 that would block such executive action.

In the House, simmering internal tensions within the Democratic Caucus also are to come to a head on Tuesday and Wednesday, in closed-door voting for party leaders. Neither Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi nor any of her top lieutenants are being directly challenged—despite the party's Election Day drubbing at the polls.

But a race for one ranking-member seat on a committee—to succeed retiring Rep. Henry Waxman on the Energy and Commerce Committee—has erupted into sort of a proxy race to gauge the extent of Pelosi's continued influence. That race pits Rep. Anna Eshoo, the choice of fellow Californian Pelosi, against Rep. Frank Pallone, who boasts committee seniority and the backing of Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. Both claim confidence they will win support from a majority of their fellow House democrats.

Meanwhile, for Keystone to pass in the Senate, proponents will need to attract 15 Democrats to their side (all 45 Senate Republicans have pledged to support the measure). And they appear to be close. The 14 Democrats have indicated that they will support the Keystone bill. And Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who is leading her conference's efforts to pass the measure, said Thursday that she was sure they would have the votes.

If the bill does not pass on Tuesday, the new Republican majority expects to take it up early next year, when far fewer Democratic crossovers will be needed and passage appears likely.

Along with other action on a House-revised version of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, which the upper chamber approved earlier this year, the rest of the week will be dominated by executive and judicial nominations. Those are to include the nominations of Leslie Abrams and Eleanor Ross for judgeships in Georgia, who were selected as part of a deal with Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia alongside controversial nominees Michael Boggs and Mark Cohen.

DEFENSE

Focus on ISIS

On Wednesday, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hear from a handful of outside experts, including former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, on where U.S. policy in Iraq and Syria should be headed.

The committee's Senate counterpart—the Foreign Relations Committee—is also planning to hold a hearing on the fight against ISIS Wednesday. Sen. Robert Menendez, the committee's chairman, has said that his panel will work on an AUMF.

But whether or not a bill will ever make it to a final vote is unclear. The administration has said that it wants the proposal to come from Congress. House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, said that he wants the legislation to come from the White House.

Also on the foreign policy front, Iran is back in the spotlight as the Nov. 24 deadline for an agreement between Iran and the P5+1 over its nuclear program draws closer. Lawmakers on two Foreign Affairs subcommittees are looking into what a potential deal could mean for international security, and if the United States is potentially negotiating a bad deal.

But it's increasingly unclear if a deal can be reached by the self-imposed deadline. Officials have expressed doubt and floated that an additional extension of the talks is possible. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Wednesday in Jordan that "the question now is whether Iran will make the choices required to close the final gaps and provide assurances that they can't develop and won't develop a nuclear weapon."

And lawmakers on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee will continue its months-long investigation into the scandal-plagued Veterans Affairs Department. Members will look into the department's long-standing IT problems, and if they are tied to how long veterans wait for an appointment or if they make it easier to manipulate data.

HEALTH

Battling Ebola

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on on-the-ground efforts to combat the Ebola epidemic, with officials from aid organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Africare, and International Medical Corps testifying.

Later the same day, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is to hold a hearing on the U.S. response to the outbreak, with testimony from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden; Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Preparedness and Response Nicole Lurie; and acting Deputy Surgeon General Boris Lushniak. The same committee is to hold a hearing Wednesday on "medical product development" in the wake of the Ebola crisis; witnesses have not yet been announced.

Also Wednesday, Congress will focus on Obamacare enrollment, following the start of the second open-enrollment period Saturday. The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on HealthCare.gov, with the White House's former Chief Technology Officer Todd Park testifying. Lawmakers plan to question Park on the "debacle" of the website, which was largely dysfunctional at the start of open enrollment last year, but officials are confident it will work far more smoothly this time around.

(Image via Frank L Junior / Shutterstock.com)

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As Lame-Duck Session Begins, Congress to Focus on Keeping Government Open

Billy House and Rachel Roubein, National Journal — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 10:11:19 -0500

Fiscal matters, foreign policy issues, and residual partisan haggling await lawmakers in the lame-duck session that starts this week, with the elephant in the room being that Republicans will shortly take over the Senate and full control of Congress.

However, that new Congress elected on Nov. 4 doesn't officially take power until January. And an omnibus spending bill, or some other more-temporary measure, must be taken up by this outgoing House and Senate to extend government funding beyond Dec. 11 and keep agencies operating.

The Senate will also begin examining the qualifications of Loretta Lynch, whom Obama announced Saturday as his pick to be the next Attorney General. Lynch, the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has so far earned praise and has been confirmed by the Senate twice before. But it's unclear how quickly her confirmation will move, and some Republicans have complained they don't believe Senators who were defeated for re-election should have a chance to vote on her nomination.

Other matters facing lawmakers include whether more money should go to address the Ebola outbreak and whether potential use of military force in the Middle East should be authorized. On Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee is to hold a hearing on the government's response to the Ebola outbreak, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden among the witnesses.

Against this backdrop, reelected and new members from both chambers will also choose their party leaders this week and next for the next session.

For his part, President Obama takes off to China, Myanmar, and Australia for four summits and meetings with allies and other Asian leaders, including a meeting with President Xi Jinping.

Given the impending shift in Senate control, some lawmakers are urging that legislative efforts these last lame-duck weeks of the 113th Congress—which are not yet completely scheduled—should be limited to keeping government functioning and other must-pass legislation.

"Issues that are not required to be determined now—not required to be determined in the lame-duck session—should be considered by new members of Congress, the ones the voters just elected," argues Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

But other lawmakers and some outside interests are pushing to get more things done.

Such items range from renewal of dozens of already-expired tax breaks to extending the soon-to-expire Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, to an Internet sales tax measure. Some of the hoped-for tax extenders would address popular items and those sought by businesses, such as tax breaks for research and development and purchases of equipment, the mortgage interest deduction, and a child-care credit.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has called for extending more than 50 such tax breaks and credits that lapsed last year through next year, to allow for more time to address a comprehensive tax-code overhaul sought by both parties. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service is prodding Congress to reach a decision on extenders before the end of the year or risk complicating next year's tax-filing season. House Republican aides say a tax-extender package during the lame duck is possible. Democrats may also seek to act on judicial picks while still in control of the Senate, which must confirm such nominations. For now, GOP opposition can still be thwarted, because Democrats changed Senate rules so that a nominee could be confirmed with a simple majority in the 100-seat chamber. Previously, it took 60 votes to get past a procedural hurdle.

Other lame-duck squawking and controversy could erupt if Obama keeps his promise to Hispanic leaders that he'd take executive action before the end of the year on immigration reform. However, little of this is expected to play out loudly during this first week back in Washington for lawmakers, as party leaders and their members in both chambers more-privately sort out their agendas and strategies. Most of the opening days of the lame duck are instead to be devoted to welcoming receptions and dinners for just-elected members-to-be, orientation programs, and intra-party leadership elections.

The Senate will be back in session Wednesday afternoon. And House Republicans who will continue to control that chamber next session—but with an even larger majority—will officially reconvene in Washington that same day. That evening, a "Leadership Election Candidate Forum" will be held. Then, on Thursday, the reelected and newly elected members will vote behind closed doors on their leaders for the next two-year session. The next day, Republicans will meet again to consider their party rules for the 114th Congress. House Speaker John Boehner and the chamber's top three other GOP leaders are each expected to win approval in those internal elections, although races for lower-level posts could take time to play out.

In the Senate, orientation programs also are scheduled for new members. Both Senate Democrats and Republicans will elect their leaders for the next session Thursday morning. No major switch-ups are expected, with current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky poised to become majority leader. Sen. Harry Reid, who has been the top Democrat since 2005, is expected to easily slide into the minority leader spot.

Unlike McConnell, House rules will then require Boehner to be formally reelected speaker in January by a majority of all of the 435 House members who show up for the vote (Democrats included). If some ornery conservatives and tea-party-affiliated members—including members-elect who pledged during their campaigns not to support Boehner—want to try and embarrass the Ohioan, that is likely to happen in that vote. But as a group, they appear to have little momentum or any replacement to defeat him.

Meanwhile, House Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi are set to hold their leadership elections on Nov. 18, with both Pelosi and other top leaders unlikely to face opposition. But competitive races for open ranking-member slots on some key committees are already poised to provide some intra-party tension.

The extent of legislative action that will occur during this lame-duck period is not yet set in stone. Republicans have scheduled action in the House the week of Nov. 16 on two bills targeting the science behind Environmental Protection Agency regulations, and a third measure dealing with manufacturing.

Click here for more details on this week's congressional agenda.

Jordain Carney, Dustin Volz, Sophie Novack, Clare Foran, and George E. Condon Jr. contributed to this article.

(Image via fstockfoto / Shutterstock.com)

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Congress Prepares to Offer More Money for Ebola Fight

Billy House and Sarah Mimms — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:31:16 -0400

With concern mounting over the possible spread of Ebola in the United States, members of Congress are preparing to offer additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies to help fight the disease within the U.S. and abroad.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday that the administration has not yet decided whether it will need to request additional funds from Congress to combat the Ebola epidemic. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, are already making plans to open the federal checkbook if necessary, while House Republicans appear to be taking a more cautious approach.

Harkin, who heads the Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, and his staff are already engaging with the administration on what resources will be needed to fight Ebola in the U.S. and in West Africa. Those estimates will provide fodder for broader talks with House Republicans to continue funding the government when Congress returns next month.

"Areas of focus in these discussions on funding for the U.S. Ebola response include the need for resources to expand quarantine stations, train and equip health workers, test potential treatments and vaccines, and expand our response in West Africa," a Harkin aide said.

In addition to existing funding for the CDC, USAID, the Defense Department, and other agencies working to combat Ebola, Congress in September approved an additional $88 million to help the effort. That funding, which was also supported by House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., was included in the continuing resolution which easily passed both chambers before members left town to campaign.

Earlier this month, Congress also gave the Defense Department its approval to transfer $750 million in funding to help combat the Ebola outbreak.

Harkin has said he hopes to "build on" that funding in the coming discussions about an omnibus spending bill, which appropriators are working to pass before a Dec. 11 deadline. Harkin called the $88 million measure, which has helped to fund the CDC's work in West Africa and in the U.S. as well as clinical trials for drugs and vaccines, "a critical first step." But, he added, "we must do more."

"We must increase resources for CDC, not just to continue their work in the three countries most affected, but also to ramp up surveillance in the 11 countries surrounding the outbreak," Harkin said in a statement. "Here at home, we need to train doctors in what to look for, and strengthen our quarantine stations at the 20 busiest entry points to the U.S. Finally, we must fund basic research for better treatments in the future as well as clinical trials for potential vaccines and therapies that are in the pipeline now. We cannot afford to let any potential vaccine be unexplored."

A number of members in both chambers have also called on the Obama administration to institute a travel ban affecting the countries plagued by Ebola. The White House has so far argued against such a ban, but if one were approved, Congress may need to provide additional funding to the Department of Homeland Security to pay for screenings and security.

Whether Congress will grant additional funding depends on talks between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Although staff for both committees are working during the recess, a Senate Appropriations Committee aide said that serious talks concerning funding to fight Ebola would be put on hold until after members return in November.

As of Friday afternoon, top aides to House Republican and Democratic appropriators said they have not received any advance word on either the amount or form of any administration request for more Ebola money. But Democrats said they anticipate one soon.

A senior House Republican aide noted that Congress does not target funding for specific diseases, as a rule or by tradition, because it may run afoul of "anti-earmark" bans. But the aide said the director of the National Institutes of Health has funding flexibility across various programs. If Ebola money is a priority for the administration, said the aide, the agency could direct additional funds to that research on its own without further action from Congress.

Even so, aides said there are questions about whether any additional money to fight Ebola must be offset elsewhere in the budget, including being subject to spending caps for 2015.

As they wait for any White House request for money, House Democrats on Friday continued to call for a hearing on whether the CDC and NIH funding is adequate, in light of the threat posed by the Ebola virus. The demand has been pending for a week, with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday also joining in the call for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., chairman of the Labor-Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Subcommittee, to convene his panel immediately.

The senior GOP aide said that House Republicans still have no plans to schedule a hearing while Congress remains adjourned. (The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee does plan to hold a hearing next Friday on "the effectiveness of interagency coordination" in the Ebola fight.)

In a new letter Friday to Appropriations Chairman Rogers, subcommittee ranking member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Appropriations Committee ranking member Nita Lowey of New York, and other Democrats pressed their concerns that budget cuts over the past four years have forced the public health infrastructure at the CDC and the Health and Human Services Department "to make do with less."

However, there is disagreement on the scope of those cuts, and the reasons for it.

Many Democrats assert that NIH funding has been cut by $1.2 billion over the past four years, before adjusting for inflation. And when accounting for inflation, they say, NIH has lost more than 10 percent of its purchasing power since 2010. The CDC program that supports state and local public health professionals working on the front lines has been cut by 16 percent over the last four years, they add, and the federal Hospital Preparedness program has been cut by 44 percent over the last four years.

But a House Republican aide disputes those figures as incorrect and misleading on the grounds they do not show the full picture or reflect total taxpayer resources dedicated to the CDC.

In addition, the aide said the enacted level of spending in 2014 for the CDC was actually $260 million above the president's own $6.64 billion request for the year. And over the last 10 years, said the aide, Congress has increased NIH funding by approximately $2.13 billion.

Democrats, for their part, respond that the president himself has had to make budget decisions that adhere to spending caps and sequestration.

Harkin has called on Congress to undo the sequestration caps—which will take another chunk out of the federal budget in October 2015—due to the seriousness of the Ebola outbreak. "With Ebola on our shores, we must lift the sequester, not double-down on it," he said.

Tom DeFrank contributed to this article.

(Image via Frank L Junior / Shutterstock.com)

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Lawmakers Want Answers on U.S. Ebola Cases

Billy House, National Journal — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 10:19:06 -0400

Amid rising anxiety over the Ebola outbreak, a congressional panel is to convene Thursday in Washington to hear details of the two confirmed cases in Dallas and whether America's ports of entry, hospitals, and health care workers are adequately prepared to prevent a further spread of the virus.

The lawmakers' inquiry will include the question of why screening procedures did not prevent Thomas Duncan from entering the U.S. from Liberia on Sept. 20, the handling of his diagnosis, and his treatment prior to his death last week, according to a memo released Tuesday by majority staffers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The committee will also be updated by officials scrambling to determine how a nurse who helped treat Duncan at a Texas hospital has become the first person to contract Ebola in the U.S.

The hearing by the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by GOP Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, had been scheduled for Thursday, even prior to Duncan's death and the news Sunday that the health care worker had been infected.

"The preparedness of the United States ports, point of entry, healthcare facilities and other institutions to identify, diagnose, isolate, and treat Ebola patients in a safe and appropriate manner will also be evaluated," according to the memo released Tuesday by the Energy and Commerce majority staff.

The memo at one point notes that that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden has attributed the health care worker's infection to "a breach in protocol," but that officials do not yet know what protocol was breached.

Heading the list of scheduled witnesses at the hearing Thursday are to be Frieden, and Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer and senior vice president of Texas Health Resources. Also set to appear are Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; Luciana Borio, assistant commissioner for counterterrorism policy at the Food and Drug Administration; and others.

The 10-page majority memo released Tuesday lists specific issues the panel plans to examine, and background about the Ebola virus and the 2014 epidemic, treatment options, and what is known so far about the two confirmed cases in the U.S.—Duncan and the nurse.

Lawmakers are expected to be told there is no FDA-approved vaccine or therapy available for Ebola, but that experimental products have been and are under development. The FDA can authorize access to potentially promising products through various mechanisms, such as an Emergency Investigational New Drug application.

The memo discusses Duncan's indirect flight to Dallas from Liberia on Sept. 19, via Brussels and Dulles Airport outside Washington D.C., arriving in Texas on Sept. 20. It also notes that he sought treatment at Texas Presbyterian Hospital on Sept. 25, only to be sent home on Sept. 26 with antibiotics after "a four-hour evaluation and numerous tests."

But Duncan was returned to the hospital by ambulance on Sept. 28, extremely ill, with symptoms now including severe vomiting. The memo says hospital officials testified that he was kept in the emergency department until he was officially admitted to the hospital and put into isolation.

The hospital notified Dallas County health officials on Sept. 29, and they arrived on site soon afterwards. CDC officials also were notified on Sept. 29, but did not arrive until Oct. 1, according to the memo. Lab testing had confirmed Ebola on Sept. 30.

The subsequent investigation into Duncan's contacts while he was contagious has so far identified 48 people out of what the memo says is a broader group with risk of exposure. Ten of those are considered to be at high risk, including four close family members.

The family members initially failed to comply with a request to stay at home through Oct. 19 (when a 21-day incubation period for the virus would have lapsed), and were subsequently forced to remain for days in an apartment that was contaminated with Duncan's bodily fluids. The family has since been moved to an undisclosed location.

As of the memo's release Tuesday, there remained questions about why the nurse—identified in news accounts as Nina Pham but in the memo only as a health care worker—tested positive for Ebola, despite her having worn a mask, gown, shield, and gloves as she helped care for the dying Duncan.

The memo says that since testing positive on Saturday evening, she has been isolated and interviewed by CDC personnel to identify any contacts or community exposures. So far, one such contact has been identified and monitored for fever and other symptoms.

(According to the Associated Press, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas released a statement on Pham's behalf Tuesday. "I'm doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers," Pham said.)

The memo quotes Frieden as saying the worker's infection was due to a "breach in protocol," as the CDC investigation into exactly what protocol was breached is ongoing.

"What have we learned from the two Ebola cases in Dallas, and how can we use this information to improve protocols, training, guidance, hospital preparedness, patient care and safety going forward, both in the U.S. and West Africa?" the memo poses as an issue to be examined by lawmakers.

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Boehner to Dems: Let's Hear Your Position on Guantanamo

Billy House, National Journal — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:06:33 -0400

Speaker John Boehner challenged Democrats Friday to declare publicly whether they would support a move by President Obama to shut down the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bring the detainees held there to the U.S.

"While Republicans stand united against this ploy, each and every Democrat should make their position known," said Boehner, in a statement from his office Friday. "Do they support the president's maneuver to override a bipartisan law, thumb his nose at the American people and the Constitution, and bring these terrorists to U.S. soil?"

Boehner's challenge to Democrats comes after The Wall Street Journal reported that senior administration officials were saying the White House is drafting several options to override congressional bans on transfers of detainees into the country.

But Boehner said Friday, "House Republicans have kept our Pledge to America to keep these terrorists out of the United States, and we will do everything within our power to keep our pledge and hold the administration accountable." He did not specify what those moves might be that are within the House Republicans' power.

There was no immediate response from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office to Boehner's challenge for Democrats to spell out whether they would support Obama.

Obama had made closing the prison—which currently has 149 inmates detained in connection with the nation's post Sept. 11, 2001, war on terrorism—one of his 2008 campaign promises. A call to shut the facility was also still included more recently as part of the 2012 Democratic Party national platform. But some civil-liberties groups and other liberals have criticized Obama's failure to carry through and find another home for the terrorism suspects being held there.

Meanwhile, Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress have repeatedly pushed back against any attempts to close the facility—arguing that the prisoners are too dangerous to move to U.S. soil

The Wall Street Journal story described senior officials as saying the president's strong preference is to shut down the prison through a legislative route but that his other options include taking executive action.

Republicans already have taken significant exception to Obama's use of executive actions to get around Congress on a number of other policy fronts, complaining that he has been sidestepping the government's system of checks and balances. House Republicans are even suing the president over charges he overstepped his authority in failing to enforce the new health care law's mandate on all employers in a timely manner.

Democrats have described that lawsuit as a waste of time and taxpayer money, and as Boehner's attempt to placate some conservatives who have been calling for impeachment.

Any such executive move regarding the closing of Guantanamo, however, might not break down so cleanly along party lines. And Boehner on Friday was seeking to press Democrats to say, one way or the other, whether they'd back such a move by Obama.

"Even as Islamic jihadists are beheading Americans, the White House is so eager to bring these terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to the United States that it is examining ways to thwart Congress and unilaterally rewrite the law," said Boehner. "Not only is this scheme dangerous, it is yet another example of what will be this administration's legacy of lawlessness."

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Senate Likely to Pass Bill Keeping Government Open

Billy House, Michael Catalini, and Sarah Mimms, National Journal — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 10:07:00 -0400

It's the Senate's turn now to vote on keeping the government open and authorizing the White House's request to train moderate Syrian rebels. But the measure, though expected to pass smoothly, is merely the beginning of a much tougher conversation that will wait until after Election Day.

The House approved a stopgap spending bill Wednesday on a bipartisan 319-108 vote, after a 273-156 tally in favor of adding the language on Syria. A Senate vote is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, as members chafe to return to their states to campaign ahead of the midterm elections.

A broader debate over whether to hand President Obama authorization to use military force in Iraq and Syria is likely to come in December. Wednesday's action in the House, where 85 Democrats—more than 40 percent of the caucus—and 71 Republicans opposed the narrower authorization to arm and train rebels, suggests the next fight could be more difficult for the White House.

Although House members were able to vote separately on the continuing resolution to keep the government's doors open and the Syria authorization, they sent the two measures to the Senate as a single package, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat, said Wednesday that the Senate is very likely to deal with both issues in a single vote.

Overall, if approved by the Senate, the bill would keep money flowing to federal agencies after the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, through Dec. 11, at the current annualized spending level of $1.012 trillion. The stopgap measure is needed because the House and Senate have not agreed on any of the 12 annual spending bills for fiscal 2015.

Senators and aides expect the package to pass with majorities on both sides, but the question of arming and vetting Syrian rebels has produced some discomfort for both Democrats and Republicans. Liberals are questioning the potential for escalation in the use of force in Syria, while conservatives object to the president's overall strategy.

In order to attract both groups, the Syria authorization was very deliberately and very tightly knit together to give the president the authority he desires, while, for the time being, ruling out a ground war and putting a strict time limit on that authority. The authorization, like the continuing resolution, will expire on Dec. 11.

That feature in particular won the support of Republican leadership.

"I particularly like the fact that the Syria authorizing legislation sunsets with the expiration of the CR or the passage of the defense authorization bill," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "What's good about that is even though—again, speaking for myself—I support what the president's doing, I'd like to take another look at it a couple of months from now and see how it's working out."

Senior lawmakers are predicting that a war authorization will emerge as an important issue, likely when Congress moves to approve a bill authorizing the defense budget for 2015.

"This issue will be taken up in the NDAA," said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan. Levin suggested that the language in the House package could simply be extended, or that lawmakers may include an authorization for the use of military force, which could involve airstrikes.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez said last week that his committee would begin drafting an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, one that, members on both sides say, is likely to be a major source of contention during the lame duck.

Senate Democrats who had opposed the authorization for the use of force in Iraq as House members are wary of voting to OK a military incursion in Syria. Nonetheless, they say they'll back the continuing resolution that includes the authorization to train Syrian rebels.

"I think it is very important that Congress take up an authorization for the use of military force," said Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland. "What we're doing in the CR is clearly not for the authorization of the use of force. It says that specifically."

Although there is widespread support for considering an AUMF, passage looks to be another story.

Already, on just the authorization to arm and train Syrian rebels, Senate leaders have lost a handful of votes on both sides, over concerns about the U.S.'s ability to vet Syrian opposition fighters and the potential scope of the nation's involvement in yet another Middle Eastern conflict. They include conservative Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Republicans Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who are working to brand themselves on foreign policy ahead of potential White House campaigns. (By contrast, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another potential 2016 candidate, says he's a likely yea).

On the House side, Wednesday's votes followed an afternoon of intense floor debate. The president's Syria proposal was described alternately as either a limited use of military assistance to vet, arm, and train moderate Syrian rebels to combat a barbaric force—or an ill-planned strategy that threatens to plunge the U.S. deep into a sectarian war.

"This is an amendment and a debate to start yet another war in the Middle East, with a very uncertain future," said Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California.

"Look at Iraq. Look at Libya," added freshman Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, an Iraq War veteran, fearful that recent hard lessons have not been learned about such intervention.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was among those who argued that the U.S. cannot ignore ISIS and the "genocide of religious minorities." She emphasized that the training will occur outside of Syria, and noted: "This is not an authorization of use of military force. I do not support, nor will I support, combat troops on the ground. That is not what this is about."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy added, "A threat that has been ignored for too long must no longer be tolerated." And Majority Whip Steve Scalise said, "Americans know this is something that ultimately we will have to confront if we do not address it now with swift action."

"This will not do everything," said the amendment's sponsor, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon. "But it is an important step at this time … to give the commander in chief the authority he needs to protect us in this area."

Pelosi and Speaker John Boehner insisted they had not pressured their members to vote either way on the Syria amendment.

But there was much angling behind the scenes, including the coupling of the president's Syria request with a must-pass spending bill. In addition, a combination of pressures and cajoling from the president and his administration on Democrats, and warnings by former Vice President Dick Cheney against growing isolationist trends in the GOP, helped pave the way for its passage.

Unrelated provisions in the spending bill also attracted votes. Among them is a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank to prevent it from shuttering on Oct. 1, even if its nine-month renewal was far shorter than supporters pushed for.

But it was the Syria amendment that so split Republicans from other Republicans, and Democrats from others in their own party.

Several of the amendment's opponents said they supported airstrikes and other counterterrorism measures. But they noted that Syria is a nation in the midst of a complex civil war, pitting Shia and Sunni, authoritarians and al-Qaida, and other groups.

"I don't see how we are going to be able to thread the needle by arming the good guys without making the bad guys stronger, as well," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.

Rachel Roubein contributed to this article.

(Image via Flickr user Lingjing Bao/Talk Radio News Service)

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House GOP Funding Bill Would Keep Government Open Through Mid-December

Billy House, National Journal — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 10:07:00 -0400

House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled details of a stopgap spending bill to keep government operating through Dec. 11 that includes money to fight the Ebola outbreak, reauthorizes the controversial Export-Import Bank through the end of June 2015, and extends the moratorium on taxing the Internet.

It was no secret that the House planned to act on a continuing resolution to keep government funded beyond the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year. Lawmakers returning Monday to Washington for two weeks of work after the August recess have made it clear they wanted to avoid the possibility of a shutdown of agencies and operations during the stretch run before the Nov. 4 elections.

But the fate of the Ex-Im Bank, which provides loans to foreign companies to help them buy American products, had been less certain.

The bank's current authorization is set to expire on Oct. 1. And though generally supported by Democrats, conservatives led by Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas have opposed its renewal. Critics say it is a form of "crony capitalism," that it interferes with the free market, and that it puts taxpayers on the hook for loans.

Even new Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy had said in June, shortly after his leadership election, that he intended to let the bank's charter expire. And internal party counts have had as much as half of the entire House Republican conference opposed to renewal.

But the prospect of shuttering the bank was upsetting many business leaders. And Speaker John Boehner and others were able to convince Hensarling and others to go along with the temporary extension through June 30, to allow more time for deciding what to do on a more permanent basis.

"Leadership has worked with Hensarling. I think this is a reasonable compromise," said Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers.

The decision to move forward with an Ex-Im renewal—even a short-term one—prompted criticism from the conservative Heritage Action for America, which has said it will score the vote on Ex-Im as a key vote for lawmakers in its ratings.

"Conservatives are understandably wary when Washington promises to fight another day, especially without an ironclad promise from leadership that this is the last reauthorization ever," said Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler. "Instead of asking conservatives to cast their vote to reauthorize this fund for corporate welfare, House Republican leaders should stand up to President Obama and K Street."

Democrats, meanwhile, have lobbied Republicans to extend the Ex-Im Bank for at least five years, and it's unclear how many votes the minority party will contribute when the measure hits the House floor.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday night announced it will be holding a hearing at 2 p.m. Wednesday to set floor procedures for a vote later this week.

Rogers pointed out that the continuing resolution includes flexibility for agencies in some spending decisions, and also includes $88 million to help pay for the government's response to the Ebola outbreak in western Africa.

(Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore)

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Federal Deficit Is Set to Rise Sharply, CBO Warns

Billy House, National Journal — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:48:24 -0400

Federal budget shortfalls are projected to rise substantially through the next decade, more than doubling to $960 billion by 2024, forcing higher federal spending on interest payments and limiting lawmakers' flexibility to deal with fiscal challenges, congressional auditors warned Wednesday.

"Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences for both the economy and the federal budget," warns the new report from the Congressional Budget Office, providing an update on the nation's economic outlook.

The main causes? A rise in Social Security spending for an aging population, by almost 80 percent through 2024; expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance, by almost 85 percent; and the growing interest payments on federal debt.

These grim projections come despite what the report says is a federal deficit that, for now, is still declining. But that will soon change.

The budget deficit at the end of fiscal 2014 (which comes on Sept. 30) is estimated to be $506 billion, roughly $170 billion lower than the 2013 shortfall.

CBO does predict that economic growth will pick up in the next few years and that increased hiring will bring the unemployment rate down.

And relative to the size of the economy, this year's deficit—at 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product—will be slightly below the average of the past 40 years; this is the fifth consecutive year in which the deficit has declined as a percentage of the gross domestic product since peaking at 9.8 percent in 2009.

At the same time, however, the debt held by the public will increase for the seventh year in a row, reaching 74 percent of GDP—the highest ratio since 1950. And according to CBO, federal debt under existing spending policies will rise to 77 percent of GDP by 2024, roughly twice the 39 percent average of the past four decades.

Along with causing federal spending on interest rates to rise, the report says "the large amount of debt might restrict policy makers' ability to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected challenges, such as economic downturns or financial crises."

"Finally, continued growth in the debt might lead investors to doubt the government's willingness or ability to pay its obligations, which would require the government to pay much higher interest rates on its borrowing," the report warns.

(Image via Dariush M/Shutterstock.com)

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Fight Brews Over How Long a Shutdown-Avoiding Measure Should Last

Billy House, National Journal — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:55:33 -0400

Unexpected drama is emerging over a bill that Congress must pass to keep the federal government funded beyond the Oct. 1 start of its new fiscal year, and it could throw a wrench into what is intended to be only a brief return to Washington for lawmakers next month amid their reelection campaigns.

This fight isn't about the necessity of doing such a continuing budget resolution to avoid another government shutdown, or even how much spending it should contain.

Rather, this battle is over how long such a temporary spending bill should last—and it is being fueled by uncertainty over whether Democrats will maintain control of the Senate after the Nov. 4 elections.

Some House Republicans—hopeful their party will take over the Senate majority—are now privately hedging on whether they should go along in September with passage of a continuing resolution that would expire in December, rather than some later date in 2015. If pushed into next year, the GOP then might control both chambers and Democrats would have less leverage in passing a new budget bill.

"This could lead into a real standoff," said one senior House GOP leadership aide, adding that Democrats are unlikely to go along with extending the CR into next year, and a new Congress.

The House is scheduled to return to session on Sept. 8 for 10 days of legislative work next month and two days in October, when they then break for good until after the election. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said senators will be in session through Sept. 23, but will also be working on the weekends.

It has become clear that Congress will have to pass some type of stopgap spending bill to keep government open past Oct. 1, and the CR will most likely extend current funding levels. None of the 12 annual appropriations bills for federal agencies has yet passed in versions agreed upon by both chambers. In fact, the Senate has yet to pass even one of those bills.

Before the current recess, many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were predicting that a CR would likely be passed in September, and most said it would extend funding through Dec. 15. Even House Speaker John Boehner told reporters during a news conference in late July that a stopgap bill would probably be written to expire in early December, when Congress is expected to be back for its lame-duck session.

A spokesman for Boehner did not respond on Wednesday when asked whether the speaker and other House Republicans are now considering whether to push for an expiration date in 2015. Likewise a Reid spokesman did not comment on whether Senate Democrats would demand an expiration date before the new Congress takes office.

But other aides confirm that some Republicans are now focusing on the fact that a Dec. 15 expiration date would provide the current Senate Democratic majority one more opportunity to block Republicans from amending the spending bill for fiscal 2015.

All of this hand-wringing, of course, comes despite earlier hopes for budget comity that had been raised after a two-year deal was crafted by GOP Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray last year. The deal that Congress enacted established spending levels—a usual source of much of the House and Senate fiscal friction—for 2015.

The two-year accord sets the budget at $1.014 trillion for fiscal 2015, up from $1.012 trillion this year. (Those figures do not include mandated spending on entitlement programs.) The assumption was that those agreements would kick-start House and Senate action in passing the 12 annual spending bills. But that has not happened. As a result, a CR is under development, though details of what it contains have not been publicly released.

A House Republican aide said Wednesday there is a good chance at least two unrelated items will be attached to what otherwise would be a "clean" CR.

One of those items would be a temporary renewal of the Export-Import Bank that will see its existing authorization expire on Sept. 30. Although many conservatives criticize the bank that provides loans to support U.S. export sales as meddling in the market and a risk to taxpayers, a decision to extend its authority for six months, or some other short term, would allow lawmakers to continue hashing that out after the election.

Temporary renewal of the federal backstop for terrorism insurance—due to expire at the end of the year—is another item that may be attached to a stopgap spending bill. That would allow more time for differences between a Senate bill and the demands for changes by House conservatives to be ironed out.

(Image via Dave Newman / Shutterstock.com)

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Battle Over Postal-Service Cuts Looms in September

Billy House, National Journal — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 09:00:00 -0400

The stage is being set this month for another round of argument and angst over the future of the U.S. Postal Service when Congress returns to work in September.

The latest squabble erupted after the USPS, which this summer reported a net loss of $2 billion in the second quarter of 2014, announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs and consolidate 82 mail-processing centers in 2015. The Postal Service has already consolidated 141 mail-processing facilities since 2012.

Last week exactly half the Senate wrote to appropriators urging them to block any more Postal Service cutbacks in legislation to fund the government after Oct. 1, which Congress must enact in September to avoid a shutdown.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee responded with a statement saying Congress should instead enact comprehensive postal reforms "before it's too late."

"If my colleagues want to address these concerns for the long-haul, I urge them to join me this September as we continue our efforts to fix the serious, but solvable, financial challenges facing the Postal Service," said Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.

Carper and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., have been promoting legislation to streamline and modernize the Postal Service and deal with its health care, pension, and other costly issues. But those efforts, including a reform bill that Carper cosponsored with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., have stalled.

Meanwhile, the USPS continues to drown in red ink, despite an increase in revenue in the quarter ending June 30. A big part of the losses stem from a congressional requirement to prepay billions of dollars into a future retiree health care fund.

Last week's letter signed by 50 senators—led by Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Jon Tester, D-Mont.—called for a one-year moratorium on further cuts to "give Congress the time it needs to enact the comprehensive postal reforms that are necessary for the Postal Service to function effectively in the future." The senators said the planned cuts in 2015 will affect services in 37 states and harm local communities and economies.

"While a number of reform proposals have been introduced in both the Senate and the House to tackle these problems over the past several years, we have yet to enact legislation," the letter said. "In the absence of congressional compromise, the Postal Service has proposed more sweeping changes to its operations."

The 50 senators requested that language be added to must-pass legislation to fund the government into the next fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The language should block for one year any Postal Service plans to consolidate more mail-processing facilities, the letter said, and should impose a moratorium through fiscal 2015 on any more reductions that would result in slower first-class mail service.

On Tuesday, Carper's frustration spilled out in a written statement.

"If Congress continues to do nothing, we face a future without the valuable services the Postal Service provides. This would be a devastating blow to our economy," Carper warned. But he noted his and Coburn's bill would preserve existing standards, including the 82 mail-processing plants and Saturday mail delivery, "until other reforms have a chance to bear fruit."

"Our bill isn't perfect but it is an important step in the right direction. I hope my colleagues will join our efforts to enhance this plan in order to save the Postal Service before it's too late," Carper said.

(Image via Flickr user Third Way Think Tank)

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Lawmaker Invites Review of His Advocacy for a Defense Contractor in His District

Billy House, National Journal — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 10:45:35 -0400

Without commenting on details, the House Ethics Committee on Monday said it is reviewing a matter involving Rep. Tom Petri—something the Wisconsin Republican himself requested amid questions of a potential conflict over his advocacy for a defense contractor in his district in which he owned stock.

"I look forward to the Committee on Ethics completing its review," said Petri, who is retiring at the end of the year after 18 terms, in a statement. "I remain confident that the committee will find that I acted properly, and that I reasonably sought, relied on, and followed the committee's advice and that I complied with House rules."

Petri is now the House's third-most-senior Republican. Only Reps. Don Young of Alaska and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin have more seniority than Petri in the House GOP.

Petri announced in April that he would not run for another term.

Monday's announcement from the House Ethics Committee was the first official confirmation that Petri, 74, was, in fact, being scrutinized by the panel. The joint statement by the committee chairman, Mike Conaway, and the panel's top Democrat, Linda Sanchez, said the case was referred by the Office of Congressional Ethics on July 2.

The OCE serves as an independent watchdog that does an initial vetting of ethics complaints.

The statement from Conaway and Sanchez said the mere disclosure of such a continued investigation does not in itself indicate any violation has occurred. The statement also said that the Ethics Committee would announce its next course of action in the case by Sept. 30.

Typically, under House rules, the Ethics Committee would then decide whether it would expand the two reviews by impaneling special investigative subcommittees. These subpanels would formally consider whether House rules were broken and, if so, possibly recommend punishment. But the time frame for such extended action is running short with Petri's announced retirement.

Still, it was Petri himself who on Feb. 16 wrote to the Ethics Committee asking for a formal review of news articles that had questioned his ownership of stock in companies and his actions on their behalf.

"It is my honor and duty to advocate on behalf of those who live and work in my area: I am distressed by the innuendo in the articles," Petri wrote, enclosing those stories with his letter. "To end any questions, I am requesting that the committee formally review the matter and report back," he wrote.

The articles he attached included those by the Gannett Washington bureau that in February tied Petri's advocacy for Oshkosh Corp., a defense contractor in his district, to his owning hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in the company.

The Gannett investigation concluded that his stock value had increased by 30 percent while he pushed Oskosh's interests at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. That included defending the awarding of a $3 billion contract in 2009 from the U.S. Army to produce 23,000 armored trucks and trailers—when competitors and other detractors demanded it be reconsidered.

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A Historically Unproductive Congress Inches Toward Finish Line

Billy House and Michael Catalini, National Journal — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:15:46 -0400

This Congress began with braggadocio about what it would accomplish.

But what came in roaring like a legislative lion is on track to go out like a lamb, barring an unlikely burst of lawmaking in September or a lame-duck session.

A promise to enact a tax-code overhaul remains an empty shell of a bill, left for some future Congress. Optimism that regular order had returned to budgeting, and to the 12 annual spending bills, has been abandoned. And other legislation depicted as essential—because of expiring previous versions or other significant needs—is also now being kicked down the road or left unaddressed, like comprehensive immigration reform, which the Senate passed in 2013 but the House is not taking up.

There's still time to do some of these things—but not much.

When they return to Washington in September, there are just 12 scheduled legislative days (and that number may be cut) before the Nov. 4 midterm election. A potentially tumultuous post-election session, especially if Republicans win control of the Senate for the next Congress, may not be a reliable fallback for moving items that have been stuck.

Much of the unresolved legislation in this Congress is significant, including dozens of tax breaks that expired in December and the full array of appropriations bills for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Already, House Speaker John Boehner is teeing up action in September on a stopgap spending measure so that the government does not run out of money after September.

Decisions are also needed on miscellaneous tariffs, terrorism risk insurance, the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, rechartering the Export-Import Bank, and perhaps re-upping long-term unemployment-insurance benefits.

"We've not had a productive Congress," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "We can't push everything back to the so-called lame duck."

Added House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who is serving in his 17th two-year session: "It's the least productive Congress in which I have served."

House Republicans were particularly vocal about their plans to come up with an alternative to the health care law. That aim was made seemingly even more definite in January at their conference retreat in Maryland, when then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor said, "House Republicans will rally and pass an alternative to Obamacare this year."

But Cantor is no longer majority leader, following his stunning Virginia primary defeat in June, and House Republicans still have not done what he said they would do.

But the poster child for inaction may be the promises at the start of 2013 that redoing the nation's tax code was the top aim. In the House, Boehner even reserved the prime legislative real estate of "H.R. 1" for such a package.

"Fixing our tax code is one of my highest legislative priorities for this Congress," Boehner said in speech to the Credit Union National Association. "It's time we shift the balance of power from the tax collector to the taxpayer."

The House Ways and Means Committee, and its retiring Chairman Dave Camp, did a great deal of work on tax reform, as did former Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who is now an ambassador. But Boehner's early enthusiasm, and indications from Camp that his panel would write, mark up, and pass major tax-reform legislation, never translated into an actual bill. The proposal that Camp did release got a tepid reception from his own leadership. And any major tax-reform efforts are being left to another Congress.

Statistically, there is no dispute that the productivity of this congressional session has been exceptionally low—at least in terms of historical comparisons of the number of bills passed (though current House leaders argue this does not account for the substance of the bills, and that they have cut back on commemorative or feel-good legislation).

Congress has passed just 142 public laws since this two-year session began in January 2013—including 70 that became law this year. And that puts this House and Senate, as of August, on a trajectory to be the least-productive Congress for making laws since at least 1947, as far back as numbers go in the official "Resume of Congressional Activity," updated monthly in the Congressional Record.

The next-least productive? Well, a search does not have to too go far, because that is the previous, 2011-12 Congress, with a total of 238 public bills passed and signed into law. The next lowest is the 280 public bills passed in the 1995-96 Congress—the product of the 1994 wave election that gave control of the House to Republicans.

Boehner and other Republicans point to how many one-chamber bills they have passed—that is, those which the Democratic-led Senate have not taken up.

"There are 352 bills passed by the House sitting in the United States Senate. Almost all of those bills passed the House on a bipartisan basis, so go take your complaints to Harry Reid," said Boehner.

But others say there is nothing impressive about a House GOP majority that passes one-sided bills without more effort at bipartisan outreach.

"It's astonishing what they haven't done," said House Rules Committee top Democrat Louise Slaughter of New York, who argues Democrats are typically not consulted in legislation, and even given only eleventh-hour notice of some bills headed to floor action.

"They haven't done anything. When you look at this economy—it could be roaring if they'd done a stimulus bill, an infrastructure bill," she said. "And the highway bill is useless. Nobody can plan a road in six months; there's not enough money in there, anyway.

"So, everything's underfunded, starved to death, and we're just letting the country get moldy, is really what we're doing," Slaughter said.

The Senate has passed fewer bills in part because of disagreement between Reid and the Republicans over amendments. Reid routinely prevents the GOP from offering amendments on legislation. That spurs Republicans, who have the power to stop Reid's agenda through filibusters, to block bills from passing.

It also inflames partisan passions. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for example, delivered a fiery speech Thursday night when it was clear Reid would not allow GOP amendments on the supplemental appropriations bill.

"I want to have some amendments debated. I want to be able to tell the people of my state that are being flooded by immigrants—I want to be able to tell them that I had a proposal representing them here in the United States Senate, that I wanted it debated and I wanted it voted on," McCain said. "Is that a hell of a lot to ask here?"

Reid, though, steers his criticism in two directions: One is that Senate Republicans are obstructionists. The other is that House Republicans are extremists. It may be political theater, but they're the ideas that infuse Reid's script.

"If they keep up the sue-and-impeach show, we'll stay right here working until they finally get serious about giving the American people a fair shot," Reid said.

When they return, Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have outlined a predictable path forward: a mix of must-pass legislation—bills to keep the government running, for example—and a dose of messaging bills that they calculate will help them in November.

Reid sketched the September schedule before lawmakers split town, and a central part of his message to senators was: We'll be working for two straight weeks, Fridays and weekends included.

The majority leader has threatened working weekends and Fridays (senators usually take off after Thursday) before, but rarely follows through. In fact the Senate has not worked a weekend since the government shutdown, when Congress worked for three weekends in a row in late September and early October, according to the Library of Congress.

But Reid is insisting September will be different.

The target date for the Senate to recess for the election is Sept. 23. Bolstering his calls for longer work weeks, Reid held a luncheon with committee chairmen this week during which their message to him was that senators should work the weekends, the majority leader said.

"No one can say you need to give us notice. You have notice," he said.

Reid's To Do list includes appropriations bills to keep the government from shutting down; the Internet Tax Freedom Act; the Export-Import Bank; the National Defense Authorization Act; a constitutional amendment from Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico on campaign finance reform; and the Democratic Caucus's passel of messaging bills: college affordability, the minimum wage, Hobby Lobby, and student debt.

Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, stopped outside the Senate chamber before recessing, was asked how senators could possibly get through the full schedule confronting them when they return.

Durbin answered immediately: "We're gonna work through the weekends if we have to."

(Image via Frank L. Junior / Shutterstock.com)

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Divided House Approves $694M Border Bill, Deportation Measure

Billy House and Tim Alberta, National Journal — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 22:00:13 -0400

This story has been updated.

House GOP leaders Friday night finally pushed through passage of border funding legislation and a bill changing deportation policies, a one-chamber messaging approach that in the end may speak louder about lawmakers' inability to ever write a workable bill that Congress as a whole can pass.

The 223-189 adoption of a $694 million supplemental spending measure came mostly along party lines, and only after both it and the second measure demanded by some harder-line members took significant rewriting. Planned votes on earlier versions Thursday had been abruptly scrapped because neither had enough support.

Four Republicans voted against it: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Walter Jones of North Carolina, Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, and Paul Broun of Georgia. (Paul Gosar of Arizona was a no, but changed his vote.) Henry Cuellar of Texas was the only Democrat to cross party lines and support it.

The revisions incorporated Friday included hiking spending from the original $659 million bill by $35 million. The added money would double to $70 million federal reimbursements to states for National Guard activities related to U.S.-Mexico border security and dealing with the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors surging there from Central America.

The House then approved the second revised bill, intended to rein in President Obama's discretionary authority to defer deportations. That measure passed 216-192, with 11 Republicans crossing the aisle to oppose it and four Democrats voting in favor. Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., voted present.

As a package, the two House measures are a far cry from the $3.7 billion border-crisis response that Obama gave to Congress earlier this month to deal with the crisis.

In fact, both of those bills in their initial versions already had been tailored for tea-party members and other conservatives, yet many of those same lawmakers still rejected them on Thursday and demanded changes.

That lack of support, and need to abruptly pull the bills, represented an embarrassment for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team. That included new Majority Whip and top Republican vote-counter/enforcer Steve Scalise, who has depicted himself as a needed leadership bridge to conservatives only to see work on his first bills unravel.

The Senate will not take up either measure—a $2.7 billion Senate bill was blocked Thursdayby Republicans and that chamber has since adjourned for its summer recess.

"At least the House is putting a bill on the floor and passing it ... but the Senate is gone. It left," Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers said on the House floor, adding: "I hope the leader of the Senate would realize that his body is getting severely criticized for leaving town."

The House bill only allocates funds through Sept. 30, which is the last day of Fiscal Year 2014. Rogers acknowledged Congress won't be in session much more before than, thus making the chances of a compromise between the two chambers rather unlikely.

"I never give up on hope, but it's pretty slim," he said.

Obama reiterated Friday that he would be sure to veto the legislation anyhow, saying House Republicans are "trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable versions of a bill that they already know is going nowhere."

But Boehner cast the blame back across the aisle.

"If President Obama needs these resources," Boehner said in a statement after the bill passed, "he will urge Senate Democrats to put politics aside, come back to work, and approve our bill. There are also steps the president can take to address this crisis within the law, and without further legislative action. Every day the president and his party fail to act is another day this crisis continues."

In fact, Boehner, his GOP leadership team, border-area Republicans, and other members wanted to be able to say to constituents over the recess that they, at least, had taken some action to deal with the crisis. The House was to begin its recess after Friday night's votes.

And some Republicans during the floor debates leading up to the votes Friday night were making a point that they at least stuck around Washington on Friday to get their bills passed—delaying the start of their five-week summer recess—while the Senate left town without passing a response to the border crisis.

"Because we are working today—somehow we are dysfunctional? That's an absurdity," said Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla. "What's dysfunctional is the other side of this Capitol, and the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue."

But Obama described the two measures as merely "partisan message bills on partisan lines that don't actually solve problems." And Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi complained that House Republicans "have lost their way" and missed an opportunity for compromise.

Along with the added spending for National Guard activities, tweaks from the initial Thursdayversions were also made to the portion of the supplemental bill addressing a 2008 anti-trafficking law, which has been a key sticking point for House Republicans.

The new language still requires Central American children to be offered voluntary removal after crossing the border, just like those from contiguous countries. However, about 16 pages of the initial emergency supplemental were gutted, slimming down the bill's procedural language to mirror one authored by Rep. John Carter, R-Texas.

Significant revisions also were made to the second measure dealing with Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—which House GOP leaders had extended as a carrot to conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz who want to repeal the program to gain their support on the supplemental spending.

The changes returned more muscular language pulled from earlier legislation authored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. As it stood Thursday, that bill would have prohibited the administration and any federal agency from issuing "guidance, memorandums, regulations, policies, or other similar instruments" to "newly authorize deferred action" for undocumented immigrants.

But the original version as written by sponsor Blackburn was tougher, in that it prohibited specific types of funding and such things as denying any undocumented immigrants on probation temporary permission to work in the country. That language has been returned.

The Blackburn bill also specifically prohibits the administration from spending any funds on new applications for DACA. Thursday's bill included no such provision.

Sarah Mimms and Rachel Roubein contributed to this article.

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House GOP Leaders Pull Votes on Border-Funding Package

Billy House, Michael Catalini, and Tim Alberta, National Journal — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 15:41:09 -0400

In stunning fashion, House Republican leaders on Thursday suddenly backed off a planned vote on an emergency border-funding package, meaning lawmakers may head home for the August recess without addressing the hot-button issue.

The legislation had been unlikely to advance in the Senate, and already had been ticketed for a presidential veto. But the decision to pull the $659 million measure represented a major embarrassment for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team—especially for Rep. Steve Scalise. He does not officially become majority whip until Friday, but he and his new whip team had made this the first bill in which they had become actively engaged in vote-gathering.

"This situation shows the intense concern within our conference—and among the American people—about the need to ensure the security of our borders and the president's refusal to faithfully execute our laws," GOP leaders said in a joint statement after the votes were canceled.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said on the floor that it is "possible" that there will be votes later Thursday, reversing his office's earlier statement. House Republicans are having a closed-door meeting at 3 pm to figure out the next steps.

The decision to pull the bill from consideration came despite a carrot extended to reluctant conservatives to back the spending bill in exchange for a second vote later Thursday on a GOP measure to rein in Obama's discretionary authority to defer deportations.

That is something that hardliners, including Sen. Ted Cruz, have been insisting should be part of any border-crisis legislation, even though it is not directly related to the crisis.

If nothing else, the House passage of its own crisis funding bill was seen as giving House Republicans room to claim over the next weeks that they at least did something before their break to address the surge of tens of thousands of undocumented minors from Central America pouring into the U.S.—even if what was accomplished was a one-chamber bill.

But the measure is a far cry from the $3.7 billion request Obama gave to Congress earlier this month. The bill also provides significantly less than the $2.7 billion contained in a Senate bill to deal with the border crisis, which was also set to be voted on.

And in the end, Republican leaders apparently were unable to attract enough votes to feel assured of getting the measure passed—either with the support of their own members, or in some combination with Democrats, whose leaders had opposed it.

"We've got a caucus of widely disparate views and it never really gelled ... 218 on our side to support the bill," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said.

Scalise and his incoming whip team felt confident Wednesday night and into Thursday that they had sufficient Republican votes to pass the border bill regardless of any Democratic support, and GOP leaders were prepared to move the bill to the floor for an early-afternoon vote.

"As of this afternoon the plan was still to move forward," said a senior GOP aide.

But around 1:45 p.m. lawmakers were alerted on their cell phones that the vote had been abruptly cancelled. No explanation was immediately offered, leaving dazed lawmakers to ask one another what had just happened.

Democrats, meanwhile, were giddy at the news of the Republican collapse. In the House basement, Colorado Rep. Jared Polis spotted an alert on his phone and hollered to a colleague: "You hear Speaker Cruz messed up their efforts over here again?"

Scalise's new whip team was privately blaming the opposition of Sen. Jeff Sessions , R-Ala., for causing last-second problems leading up the planned vote.

According to a member of the team, Scalise has told them the six Republicans of the Alabama delegation decided not to back the bill after being lobbied by Sessions. He has opposed the bill because it does not itself contain language to freeze Obama from expanding his unilateral deferrals.

Sessions also questioned last week on the Senate floor whether agencies involved in the crisis are really "in dire need of supplemental funding from this Congress." But mostly, said the member of the whip team, Sessions' opposition was to the lack of DACA language in the House supplemental bill. He was not satisfied with letting a separate vote occur on that issue.

Some Texas members of the delegation also were unsatisfied, said the whip member.

"We had it – we even had Justin Amash as one of the ones with us," said the member, referring to the Michigan Republican with a history of breaking with leadership.

"When Jeff Sessions came over here, it gummed everything up," he said.

"We didn't want to put it on the floor with just 215 votes," he said of the number they were at, because he said Democratic leaders would then get involved in trying to pressure members of their party from crossing over and providing the two or three additional votes needed.

Some outside conservative groups, like Heritage Action, also lobbied against the bill.

"The was the Scalise whip team's first big bill -- and having to rely on Democrats would not have engendered much confidence," said Dan Holler, a Heritage spokesman. "And what we hear is it became clear they needed Democratic votes."

That opposition was frustrating to the many Republican lawmakers who were eager to get something passed before recess.

"I think we'd be reckless for us to leave Washington without voting on this border security bill," said Republican Rep. Charlie Dent. "I say put the bill out on the floor for a vote. If it fails, it fails. And those who vote against it go home and explain it."

As for Scalise and McCarthy, Dent said: "It's not a great way to start, obviously, but I'm not blaming the new leadership."

Rep. Devin Nunes, a close ally of Speaker John Boehner, called the influence of Cruz and other foes "not helpful. ... It's just shocking to me that some of these guys want to turn over their voting cards to the senate or some of these outside groups."

But other Republicans dismissed the impact that Cruz, the Texas senator who hosted some House colleagues for pizza in his office last night, moved the needle on this vote.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the immigration hard-liner who has led the opposition to the border bill, attended the Cruz meeting last night and said the senator "listened more than he talked" and did not attempt to whip against the bill.

"He did not utter a word of opposition," King said.

Whatever the cause of the meltdown, the unexpected collapse had House leadership aides seething on Thursday afternoon. One senior Republican said "at least" 200 GOP lawmakers supported the bill, and added that members were "stunned" to see it pulled from the floor.

That left Boehner and his leadership team scrambling to pull together a 3 p.m. special conference meeting at the request of "pissed off" members who wanted to vent at colleagues, according to one senior GOP aide.

Meanwhile, the Senate has not yet set a vote time for its $3.57 billion supplemental for the border, Israel's Iron Dome and Western U.S. wildfires. But with news that the House may have pulled its bill, Democratic leaders are already predicting that the president will have to act on his own.

Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin suggested the president might move funds from elsewhere in the administration's budget to deal with the border crisis.

"The president is gonna have to respond to it and that means he's gonna have to try to martial the resources from other places," Durbin said. "That means cutting back spending in some other areas, so it won't be without some pain."

They're also pinning political blame on Republicans and suggesting that the GOP stymied the president and Senate Democrats' attempts to address the crisis.

"The president has tried to respond, in a humane, sensible legal way and sadly the House of Representatives is unable to get a majority to support that approach," Durbin said.

In the Senate, the Democrats are poised to block Republicans from offering amendments on the supplemental bill.

"Of course we want to go forward with a clean supplemental otherwise we're gonna get bogged down, unlikely to pass anything, and the House may just pick up and leave," Durbin added.

Senate Republicans are holding out for the chance to offer amendments. Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said there will be a number of difference measures offered, but did not elaborate.

He also blamed President Obama for the House's failure to pass a supplemental.

"It doesn't help when there's no leadership at the White House," Cornyn said. "So as usual nothing happens."

The issue might resurface when the Senate returns in September, suggested Durbin, answering affirmatively when asked if lawmakers would consider the funding later.

This post is breaking and may be updated.

Sarah Mimms and Rachel Roubein contributed to this article.

(Image via Flickr user medilldc)

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