Legislative Activity President to Release Budget on February 9, Starting FY 2017 Appropriations Process The White House recently announced they will release the President’s budget request for FY 2017 on February 9. This will be the final budget request of his presidency, and is expected to adhere to the discretionary spending levels put in place … Continue Reading
Note from Capital Thinking As Congress prepares to wrap up all remaining business in Washington this week, please be advised that Capital Thinking will also be on recess until Congress returns. Expect our next post on Monday, January 11, 2016. Senate Legislative Activity The Senate will meet on Monday, December 14, at 3:o0pm. Following any Leader remarks, the … Continue Reading
Senate Legislative Activity The Senate will meet on Monday, December 7, at 2:o0pm. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00pm. At 5:00pm, the Senate will enter Executive Session to consider Executive Calendar #214, Travis Randall McDonough, of Tennessee, to be US District Judge for the Eastern … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Omnibus Negotiations Continue, Funding Runs Out This Friday Despite having a budget deal, negotiations over policy riders in the forthcoming $1.1 trillion omnibus bill continue this week. Last week, Congressional Republicans proposed an omnibus bill that included several contentious policy riders, which the Democrats were quick to reject and make a counter-offer. The … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity President Signed Five-Year Surface Transportation Reauthorization Last Friday, President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) into law, reauthorizing surface transportation programs for the next five years. The $305 billion bill gained widespread bipartisan support, passing the House by a vote of 359-65 and the Senate by a vote of … Continue Reading
Senate Legislative Activity The Senate will meet on Monday, November 30, at 3:o0pm. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00pm. At 5:00pm, there be up to 30 minutes of debate prior to a vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar #268, the nomination of Gayle Smith, of … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Omnibus Negotiations Continue As Deadline Approaches The House and Senate continue to negotiate an omnibus spending bill, though time is running out as the current continuing resolution (CR) only funds the Federal government through December 11. Complicating the negotiations are disagreements over several policy riders that Republicans would like to include in the … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House and Senate Conference Continues on Highway and Transit Bill, Conference Report May Come This Week House and Senate conferees hope to finalize an agreement on a multi-year surface transportation bill this week, as the December 4 expiration of current program authorizations quickly approaches. While the leaders of the reauthorization effort had hoped … Continue Reading
Senate Legislative Activity The Senate will meet on Monday, November 16, at 3:o0pm. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00pm. At 5:00pm, the Senate will enter Executive Session, with 30 minutes of debate equally divided. This debate will be followed by a roll call vote on … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate and House to Focus on Appropriations Bills Under New Caps Following the recent two-year budget and debt ceiling agreement, The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, the House and Senate are now working under new discretionary caps, increased by $50 billion for FY 2016 and equally divided between defense and non-defense programs. The … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House and Senate Conference Underway, Another Short-Term Extension Possible This week, the House and Senate will continue their work on conferencing their respective surface transportation reauthorization bills. While staff have been working to reconcile the bills’ differences, conferees are expected to hold their first official meeting this week. Congressional Democrats and the White … Continue Reading
Senate Legislative Activity On Monday, November 2, the Senate will not be in session. The Senate will instead meet on Tuesday, November 3, at 10:00am. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.1140, Federal Water Quality Protection Act, with the time until 12:30pm equally divided between the two Leaders … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Two-Year Budget Agreement Approved Late last week, the House and Senate sent to the President a two-year bipartisan budget/debt ceiling agreement, The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (House vote 266-167; Senate vote 64-35). In addition to suspending the debt limit through March 15, 2017, the proposal raises sequestration-level discretionary budget caps by $80 … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity US/Europe Energy Relations On Thursday, November 5, the U.S. House of Representatives and the European Parliament will jointly discuss energy security issues. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold an “Energy Security Roundtable” with European members of the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue. The event will be co-chaired by … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House To Consider Transportation Bill on Floor Both chambers passed a short-term extension last week, reauthorizing highway, highway safety, and transit programs through November 20. The House now turns to floor consideration of their six-year surface transportation bill on Wednesday. The House appears determined to make productive use of the 22-day extension. On … Continue Reading
Senate Legislative Activity The Senate will meet on Monday, October 26, at 3:o0pm. Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of S.754, Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. At 5:00pm, the Senate will enter Executive Session to consider Executive Calendar #140, Lawrence Joseph Vilardo, of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for the Western … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Debt Ceiling Looms Over House Speaker Elections According to the Treasury Department, the debt ceiling will be reached on November 3, leaving the House only five more legislative days to increase it. Complicating the issue, the floor vote for a new House Speaker is scheduled for Thursday, October 29, with Rep. Paul Ryan … Continue Reading
Regulatory Activity Clean Power Plan Last week, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) finally published in the Federal Register the final Clean Power Plan. This regulatory action is one of the keystones of the Obama Administration climate change initiative, which it sees as an important part of the President’s legacy. With this announcement, the EPA is … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Transportation Bill Marked-Up, But Short-Term Extension Needed Facing the October 29 expiration of surface transportation programs, the House will vote this week on a bill to extend these programs for three weeks, through November 20, buying time for the House to finish work on its six-year bill. The extension legislation also includes … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget Negotiations Continue Amidst Busy Congressional Calendar Budget negotiations between staff for Republican leadership, the White House, and Democrats are ongoing, but there have been few signs of progress. Democrats have recently announced they will not accept changes to entitlements as part of a budget deal to increase government spending, increasing the likelihood … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Releases Highway Bill, Markup Scheduled This Week On Friday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) released its long-awaited surface transportation reauthorization bill and scheduled the markup of the bill for this Thursday, October 22. The House provides six years of authorizations from the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget Negotiations Begin Recently, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) began discussions with President Barack Obama on a budget deal. The three of them participated in a conference call to lay the foundation for negotiations, and while Majority Leader McConnell reportedly pushed to keep Democratic Leadership in … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Likely to Move CR Soon, But Complications Remain With only eight legislative days scheduled in the House before government funding runs out on September 30, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is under a short timeline to push a Continuing Resolution (CR) through the House. Speaker Boehner could bring a CR to the floor … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Appropriations Process All But Over, CR Likely The appropriations process is almost certainly over and when Congress returns from the August recess there will be just ten legislative days before federal funding runs out, hardly enough time to negotiate a budget deal or an omnibus spending bill. As anticipated, Congress will likely pass … Continue Reading
