News & Events
The D.C. Update (Vol. IV, No. 3)
2/16/2012
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The Week Ahead: February 15 - 17
The House is expected to consider legislation to expand domestic oil and gas exploration and drilling. The House may also consider a surface transportation reauthorization bill.
The Senate will continue consideration of a surface transportation bill.
Banking & Financial Services
The House Financial Services subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity approved draft measures aimed at overhauling affordable housing programs and bolstering the Federal Housing Administration’s finances by raising the premiums the agency can charge. The subcommittee also approved a measure to expand the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of “homeless” to include all children and youth who are verified as homeless by other government agencies. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), chairwoman of the subcommittee, said she hopes the full committee would mark up the bills by the end of the month.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage financing giants now operating under federal control, are unlikely to be overhauled this year, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Thursday, February 2, although he promised to provide more details on the Obama administration’s plans in coming months. Most housing observers did not expect Congress and the Obama administration to tackle such a complicated and politically divisive issue as the mortgage finance system in an election year, but Geithner’s comments mark the first formal admission that action will wait until after the election. Still, Geithner told reporters the administration wants to make progress this year on developing changes to the mortgage market.
Defense
The Navy over the next several months will complete a new force structure study that could change the requirement for the minimum number of ships it needs to carry out its worldwide mission, Adm. John Harvey, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said Tuesday, January 31. On Capitol Hill, Rep. Todd Akin, (R-Mo), chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee, said “It is stunning that the president would announce a strategy and then cut the Navy who will be called on to execute this strategy.”
On Tuesday, January 31, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stood in favor of another base realignment and closure round, telling reporters that Congress cannot ask the Pentagon to cut unnecessary spending from its annual budgets while at the same time balking at efforts to trim unnecessary infrastructure. Defense Department officials announced Tuesday, January 26, that it plans to ask Congress to authorize another base realignment and closure process (BRAC). The Pentagon could request a BRAC to begin as early as next year, with another to follow in 2015.
Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley said Thursday, February 2, that the military will begin planning for a possible spending sequester this year, adding on Friday, February 3, that he and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz are briefing congressional staff on budget-cutting plans to trim 10,000 personnel from the force next year and retire nearly 300 aircraft through fiscal 2017, hitting active and reserve units in nearly every state.
Education
Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) formally introduced two bills on Thursday, February 9, that differ slightly from earlier drafts he had offered for overhauling the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The bills will be the focus of a February 16 hearing and will be marked up within three weeks. The two measures, which would eliminate the law’s school accountability system and mandate that states implement teacher evaluation systems, were released on the same day that the Obama administration announced the winners of the first round of waivers from No Child’s most onerous requirements.
On Thursday, February 9, President Obama announced the first 10 states to receive waivers from certain aspects of the NCLB federal education law. Those states, which had to commit to their own, federally approved plans, will now be free, for example, to judge students with methods other than test scores. They also will be able to factor in subjects beyond reading and math.
Senate Republicans pushed back hard against President Obama’s package of college affordability proposals Thursday, February 2, at a hearing about the rising cost of tuition. “My fear is that if we shift the responsibility to determine what success or affordability is to Washington, and we come up with arbitrary thresholds that sound good, like graduation rates . . . we would close just about every community college because their graduation rates are low,” Sen. Richard M. Burr (R-S.C.) said during the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.
Energy/Environment/Climate Change
Federal regulators approved Thursday, February 9, permits that could clear the way for construction of the first new commercial U.S. nuclear reactors in more than 30 years. By a 4-1 vote, the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission backed the combined construction and operating license allowing a consortium led by Southern Co. to build two new reactors at its Vogtle plant in Georgia.
Federal fines imposed on oil and gas companies for violating safety and environmental drilling rules “amount to nothing more than pocket change” for those firms, says a new study from the Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee (NRC). The report found that the Interior Department collected $273,875 for all drilling-related violations on public lands over the 13 years starting in February 1998. It was compiled at the request of Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.). Markey is the full committee’s ranking Democrat, while Holt is the top Democrat on the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee. They sent the report to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, along with a letter urging him to strengthen the department’s oversight and enforcement strategies.
The NRC on Wednesday, February 1, endorsed expanded onshore and offshore drilling intended to help offset the cost of a surface transportation package with a mix of old and new policy initiatives. The bills would open up a portion of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas exploration and production and allow drilling off the coast of southern California and in the currently off-limits eastern Gulf of Mexico. A third measure would prevent the Interior Department from revising a Bush administration oil shale leasing program for public lands, opening up Western states to experimental extraction techniques for a resource that is not yet commercially viable.
On Monday, January 31, Senate Republicans unveiled legislation that would shift the burden for approving the Keystone XL pipeline from the president to lawmakers on the basis of Congress’ constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce as a legal justification. With the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.V), the bloc of 44 senators opened a new round of fighting over the proposed $7 billion pipeline, which President Obama rejected earlier this month.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee (HECC) endorsed a bill Tuesday, February 7, sponsored by Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) that would shift permitting authority for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from the State Department to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, setting it up for possible inclusion in a broader transportation package next week.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calf.), Ranking Member of the HECC, said renewable-energy lobbies are stepping up efforts to secure congressional action on a variety of expired or soon-to-expire tax incentives as the deadline for a payroll tax extension draws near, though provisions are “not yet on the table.”
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved a bill Tuesday, February 7, that would require a study on the effects of an ethanol blend on commercial vehicles and marine engines. The committee approved 19-7 the amended measure in a party-line vote. The bill would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to coordinate with the National Academy of Sciences to study the 15 percent ethanol blend, known as E15. The EPA is about to raise the ethanol blend limit from 10 percent to 15 percent and an Energy Department finding determined the E15 blend is safe for engines.
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Immigration
Lawmakers of both parties voiced their frustration Thursday, February 9, at the stalled legislative efforts to overhaul visa programs for agricultural workers. Members of both parties agree that the H-2A visa program, which grants temporary work authorization for immigrant farm workers, is dysfunctional, but there is little agreement on how to fix it. Lawmakers sounded pessimistic at a committee hearing about the prospect of making any changes to agricultural guest worker programs in an election year in which Republican presidential hopefuls have turned immigration policy into a political test issue. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), is pushing a bill that would replace the Labor Department’s current H-2A with a new Agriculture Department H-2C program. The current program places no limits on the number of seasonal workers allowed to participate but requires employers to meet multiple requirements.
Insurance
It has been reported that the Federal Insurance Office is expected to send its report on modernization of insurance regulation to Congress in the coming weeks. The report is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
On Thursday, February 9, Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urging them to bring to the floor for debate and passage legislation to fully extend the National Flood Insurance Program. The bill was approved by the Senate Banking Committee in September 2011. A bipartisan coalition of 41 Senators signed the letter.
It has been reported that Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) will soon introduce legislation that would amend the Securities Exchange Act to require the chief executive officer of a credit rating firm to attest, quarterly, to the accuracy of the credit ratings issued by the organization.
On Thursday, February 2, the Subcommittee on Social Security of the House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on the accuracy and uses of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF). Workers’ compensation, pension, annuity, unemployment and other benefit plans use the DMF for the purpose of determining benefits to those who are deceased. In announcing the hearing, Chairman Sam Johnson (R-Texas) stated incorrect death reports have created severe personal and financial hardship for those who are erroneously listed as deceased, including the termination of benefits and the public disclosure of information that the SSA normally keeps confidential.
On Tuesday, January 31, Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) introduced legislation to amend the Internal Revenue Code to clarify the tax treatment of certain life insurance contract transactions. The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
HR Policy Association, the Association of Chief Human Resource Officers, sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius on Tuesday, January 31, to express concern regarding the slow progress in the establishment of exchanges as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the relative lack of the necessary regulatory guidance. The Association urges HHS to issue final rules on the operation and development of the state and federally supported exchanges as soon as possible but no later than July 1, 2012.
Labor, Pensions & Retirements
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday, February 7, advanced a Republican proposal to require lawmakers and the federal workforce to cover a bigger portion of their retirement benefits, which supporters say could save significant amounts of taxpayer dollars. The committee advanced by a 22-16 party-line vote an amended bill that would increase employee contributions to the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) by 1.5 percent of their salaries over a three-year period, starting next year. Employees enrolled in FERS currently give .8 percent of their paychecks to the pension fund.
The House-Senate conference committee pursuing an extension of a payroll tax cut and other expiring programs made little progress toward a final agreement on Thursday, February 2. By the end of the meeting, the conference committee had completed its review of the policies in a yearlong extensions bill but not the spending cuts and revenue increases that might be used to cover its cost. Lawmakers noted that future discussions about offsets could significantly reshape the debate about possible changes to the bill, which is expected to cost at least $160 billion over 10 years. The Labor Department yielded to pressure from farmers, ranchers and a growing number of lawmakers and said Wednesday, February 1, it will withdraw portions of proposed work safety rules for children. The action was taken a day before the Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee was slated to hold a hearing to scrutinize the rules, which critics said could have barred children from working in family farm operations.
Tax
Republican members of a House-Senate conference committee have rejected an offer from Democrats to preserve long-term unemployment benefits at close to their current level as part of a broader package of extensions, said a senior GOP lawmaker. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) called the Democratic proposal “puzzling” because it would make few concessions to Republicans as the February 29 deadline approaches for reaching a deal on a full-year extensions bill covering the unemployment benefits, a Social Security payroll tax cut and doctor reimbursements from Medicare.
Telecommunications
Top administration officials spelled out for senators on Wednesday, February 1, dire national security implications of threats to U.S. computer networks. But efforts to move a comprehensive cybersecurity bill through the chamber are still meeting resistance. Majority Leader Reid wants a bill on the floor by the middle of February, and a group of senators plan to unveil that bill this week. But the Senate schedule, divisions over final language and opposition from a key industry group could throw a wrench in those plans.
The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies easily advanced a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill Wednesday, February 1, after fending off a Democratic effort to strip language that would establish a new organization to manage information-sharing between the federal government and the private sector. The legislation (HR 3674) would require the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate cybersecurity activities across the federal government and work with owners, operators and technology suppliers of critical infrastructure to help identify and counter risks.
Trade
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D-Mich.) of the Senate Finance panel said Tuesday, January 31, that lawmakers are searching for the best vehicle for legislation requested by the White House to ensure that the Commerce Department can levy higher tariffs on subsidized imports. Lawmakers are considering technical aspects of existing law and a controversial federal court case as they begin the bill-drafting process.
Transportation & Infrastructure
House and Senate negotiators convened a rare conference committee meeting Tuesday, January 31, on an agreement for legislation that would authorize $15.9 billion annually for federal aviation programs through fiscal 2015. The conference report, which would authorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration consistent with fiscal 2012 appropriation levels, would allow slightly more on average each year than the House had proposed but less on average than the Senate initially backed. The Senate on Monday, February 6, cleared the four-year renewal of federal aviation programs, advancing a reauthorization to the president’s desk for the first time in nearly a decade. By a vote of 75-20, the chamber adopted the conference report to the bill that would authorize about $15.9 billion annually for federal aviation programs through fiscal 2015.
The House Ways and Means Committee Friday, February 3, approved the revenue title of a five-year, $260 billion transportation reauthorization package despite concerns by the panels’ Democrats about the reliability of its proposed funding streams. The committee approved the measure in a 20-17 vote. All the votes in favor came from Republicans.
House Republican leaders are splitting their marquee surface transportation bill into three parts in a bid to divide and overcome intense opposition to some of its most contentious provisions. Leadership decided to break out two of the most hotly contested pieces from their five-year, $260 billion surface transportation authorization. HR 3813, the Securing Annuities for Federal Employees Act of 2012, would force government workers to contribute a bigger share to their pensions, and HR 3408, the Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy and Resource Security (PIONEERS) Act, contains the energy titles related to expanded oil and gas drilling. President Obama on Tuesday, February 14, threatened to veto the entire package, saying the highway portions raise safety concerns and objecting to many of the energy and drilling initiatives that would help pay for the surface transportation programs.
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Contributors
Shane Doucet, Douglas P. Faucette, Denise Hanna, Harriet Miers, Jim Moriarty, Phil Rivers, Mark Siegel, Walter B. Smith, Jr.
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