Legislative Activity Energy and Commerce and SGR Reform Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released updated draft legislation that addresses physician payments under Medicare and reforms the sustainable growth rate. While Republicans Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Michael Burgess (R-TX) have been active in the drafting … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Student Loan Interest Rates A bipartisan group of senators, led Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), announced another agreement on student loan interest rates last week. The deal, which represents a new scheme that shifts to market-driven variable interest rates, was announced after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) ultimately agreed to support it. According to reports, … Continue Reading
Legislative Branch Activity Cybersecurity Legislation The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is expected to mark up a bipartisan cybersecurity bill before the end of this month. A draft of the bill is currently being circulated and contains provisions that would codify the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to continue … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Farm Bill On July 18, the Senate accepted a unanimous consent resolution that formally requested the Senate to move to conference on the Farm Bill. In sending the Farm Bill to the House, the Senate had to place its text into the shell of the House-passed bill, which the House sent to the … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Mandate Votes Following the U.S. Treasury’s announcement of a one-year delay in the Affordable Care Act employer responsibility requirements, House leadership plans to hold two votes this week to repeal both the employer and individual mandates for one year (H.R. 2667 and H.R. 2668). The move would force House Democrats to go … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Farm Bill. On July 12, the House narrowly passed a revised “agriculture-only” Farm Bill (H.R. 2642) by a vote of 216 to 208, with 12 Republicans voting against the bill. The bill repealed the 1949 Act, which would authorize commodity programs to be permanent law. Less than 218 votes were needed to … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Appropriations Committee Membership. On Thursday, June 20, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced that Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has joined the committee to fill the seat held by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In a statement released last week, the Chairwoman expressed her confidence in the value Sen. Coons … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Appropriations Action Last week the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation/Housing and Urban Development approved its spending bill for FY 2014. The bill provides $44.1 billion ($13.9 billion less than the President requested) and reflects the automatic spending cuts required under sequestration. Although the bill largely protects core funding for surface transportation programs … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Tax Writing Committee Continues Meetings on Reform The Senate Finance Committee has continued its series of closed-door Committee meetings on tax reform, recently issuing its tenth and final option paper on non-income tax issues and related reforms. A list of all the option papers published is available here. Senate Finance Committee Chairman … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget and Appropriations The House approved its version of FY 2014 Homeland Security appropriations on June 6, but the Senate is just beginning the appropriations process. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has announced that the Homeland Security Subcommittee 302(b) allocation for FY 2014 will be $39.1 billion (plus $227 billion for … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Full Time Employee Bill Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (R-IN) introduced a bill that would change the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) definition of a full-time worker to someone who works 40 hours a week, up from 30 hours, titled the “Forty Hours is Full Time Act of 2013.” The Senators also … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Administration Nominations to be Considered this Week On Thursday, June 27, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing to consider several of President Obama’s nominations, including Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA); Kara Stein and Mike Piwowar to be Commissioners at the Securities and … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Student Loan Reform Senators continue to work on a bipartisan deal to address federally subsidized student loan interest rates, which expire July 1. The long-term deal, which is expected to (1) peg the rates to the 10-year Treasury bill, (2) include a consolidated rate cap – something Democrats have called “non-negotiable,” and (3) … Continue Reading
Legislative Branch Activity Cybersecurity Legislation In the Senate, the committees with jurisdiction over cybersecurity issues continue to work on drafting legislation that will be introduced in the coming weeks, including the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Previous efforts to pass cybersecurity … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Farm Bill. Last Thursday, June 20, the House failed to pass its version of the Farm Bill by a vote of 195 to 234. Overall, 171 Republicans voted for the measure and 62 opposed the measure due to concerns that there was still too much spending on farm subsidies and the Supplemental … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Tax Writing Committee Continues Meetings on Reform The Senate Finance Committee has continued its series of closed-door committee meetings on tax reform, recently issuing an options paper addressing charitable and tax-exempt organizations. The most recent paper is available here. The Committee’s paper on charitable and tax-exempt organizations was the ninth topic covered … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate The Senate initiated its debate on S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act last week. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) invoked cloture on a motion to proceed and began accepting amendments to the bill on Tuesday, June 11. Last Wednesday, June 12 the process got bogged down with … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Comprehensive Immigration Reform This week, the Senate will continue to consider its comprehensive immigration reform bill – the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) – though an amendment introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) regarding border security may hold up the process. Senator Cornyn’s amendment would add requirements to … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Franks Abortion Bill The House is scheduled to take up H.R. 1797, the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” on Tuesday, June 18, that would ban nearly all abortions after the twentieth week of pregnancy. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), was approved by a vote of 20-12 by the House Judiciary … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Passes Derivatives Bills Last Wednesday, June 12, the House passed several bills related to certain derivatives and swaps regulation provisions under the Dodd-Frank Act. Included among the bills was H.R. 1256, a controversial proposal that would direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt a … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Gainful Employment Nominations for individuals to serve on the Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking committee to prepare proposed rules for gainful employment programs under Title IV are due July 12. The department may establish additional negotiated rulemaking committees to consider action on issues, including: (1) Cash management of funds provided under Title IV … Continue Reading
Legislative Branch Activity National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Over the course of two days last week, the House debated over 150 amendments to its FY 2014 NDAA bill (H.R. 1960). Notably, the House approved by 305-121 an amendment to transfer all combat operations to Afghans by the end of this year and withdraw all U.S. … Continue Reading
Legislative Branch Activity Cybersecurity Legislation The House Homeland Security Committee will introduce a new piece of cybersecurity legislation that would codify the cyber roles and responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as address other key aspects of cybersecurity. The committee has been working with stakeholders for several weeks on its draft … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Farm Bill Timeline Today at 2:00 pm is the deadline the House Rules Committee has set for members to file amendments to the Farm Bill (H.R. 1947). The House Rules Committee will then meet at 5:00 pm to consider rules for floor debate on the bill. The Farm Bill is scheduled for floor … Continue Reading
