July 2, 2010
J.R. Reskovac
Sarah Strup
Appropriations- Subcommittee Markups:
Agriculture
Wednesday, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved an increase for the FY11 spending bill that would provide additional funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international food aid while still meeting President Obama’s request to restrict government spending at current levels. The draft bill would provide $23.1 billion in discretionary spending, $204 million less than FY10 levels and about $27 million under Obama’s FY11 request.
Commerce/Justice/Science
Tuesday, the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote, a draft FY11 spending bill that would provide $60.5 billion in discretionary funds. The measure would provide $26.4 billion for science programs, including $19 billion for the space agency. However, appropriators withheld $4.2 billion for human space exploration until a broader NASA authorization measure could be enacted.
Disaster/War Supplemental
The House on Thursday amended the measure to add approximately $21 billion in domestic spending, and returned it to the Senate where lawmakers will consider the measure when they return from the July fourth recess. The additional money would all be offset, but the administration threatened to veto the measure over cuts to education that were used as offsets.Top of Form
Members voted 239-182 to adopt a key amendment to the Senate-passed bill (HR 4899) to add billions of dollars for schools and Democrats’ other domestic priorities. Democrats kept the chamber working into the night to push through the package, which included the $58.8 billion approved by the Senate, largely for war funding.
Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, had asked Congress to clear the bill before the break next week, but Thursday’s House action means the legislation will not be able to go to President Obama for his signature by that deadline. Consequently, officials said they would have to start dipping into domestic maintenance and operations budgets to continue funding the wars.
Legislative Branch
The House Legislative Branch Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday approved by voice vote a FY11 draft bill that would provide $3.6 billion in discretionary funding, excluding Senate items. The measure is $6.8 million below 2010 levels and $336.8 million (nine percent) less than the president requested.
Transportation-HUD
A House Appropriations panel Thursday backed a $126.4 billion FY11 Transportation-HUD spending bill, despite Republican concerns about using money from the Highway Trust Fund to pay for unrelated programs.
By voice vote, the panel approved the draft bill that would provide funding levels about $3.3 billion higher than the FY10 Transportation-HUD funding contained in an omnibus spending package (PL 111-117). However, the proposed $67.4 billion in discretionary spending is $1.3 billion (two percent) less than the president’s request and $500 million less than the amount appropriated for FY10.
The approved appropriations measure would provide a total of $79.3 billion for Transportation Department operations, nearly $3.7 billion more than appropriated for FY10 and $1.7 above the president’s request. Total funding for the Housing and Urban Development Department would be set at $46.6 billion, $520 million more than FY10 levels and about $1 billion more than the president’s request.
The spending breakdown is as follows:
- 16.5 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration
- $45.2 billion for the Federal Highway Administration
- $11.3 billion for the Federal Transit Administration
- $17.2 billion for tenant-based rental assistance
- $9.4 billion for project-based rental assistance
- $4.4 billion for Community Development Block Grant programs
Budget
Thursday, House Democrats adopted a one-year spending plan in lieu of a conventional five-year budget resolution, which sets a discretionary spending cap for FY11 spending bills.
The “Budget Enforcement Resolution” (H Res 1493) was approved last night when the House voted 215-210 for the floor rule on the FY10 supplemental bill. There was no separate debate on the Democrats’ plan, which was not released until earlier in the day. The measure would set the FY11 discretionary spending cap at $1.121 trillion, about $7 billion below the administration’s request.
House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) maintains that the cap is actually $15 billion below the President’s request because the president proposed to convert Pell grants and a portion of the low-income heating assistance program into mandatory programs. Obey says that since they are not being converted, the continued discretionary funding for those activities will transpose other discretionary spending proposed by Obama. With the House having adopted a FY11 spending cap, House appropriators can adopt individual spending allocations for each of its 12 spending bills for FY11. However, House action does not apply to the Senate, which will have to take its own actions to set a spending cap.
The budget measure includes several other provisions, including those that would synchronize disparities between the new “pay-as-you-go” law (PL 111-139) and the House’s own pay-as-you-go rules— the difference being that House rules and the statute used slightly different time periods for determining the budgetary effects of legislation. It specifies that budget enforcement provisions included in the FY10 budget resolution (S Con Res 13) will remain in effect and that by 2015, federal spending will equal revenue, and the ratio of debt-to-GDP will be stabilized “at an acceptable level” once the economy recovers.
Language also is included to prevent lawmakers from taking any savings that result from enacting recommendations of Obama’s fiscal commission and using them as offsets for new spending or tax policies. Finally, the measure instructs House committee chairmen to submit recommendations for eliminating wasteful spending in their jurisdictions. House leaders have made similar requests in the past, but the results have not been publicly released. The budget plan requires these new proposals be printed in the Congressional Record no later than September 15.
Employment
The House backed legislation on Thursday that would revive expired unemployment benefits, but the measure will have to wait until after the Independence Day recess for Senate action. The House passed the bill (HR 5618), as amended, 270-153, but recent Senate efforts to move companion legislation have come up short.
Environment
A House panel endorsed legislation Thursday to remove the liability cap on offshore drilling facilities as part of a continuing legislative response to the Gulf Coast oil spill. The bill (HR 5629), approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by voice vote, would eliminate the $75 million limit on liability for cleanup costs and damages to third parties, dating back to events on April 19, the day before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill.
Taxes
The House passed a bill that would require manufacturers of recreational firearms and ammunition to pay an excise tax quarterly instead of every two weeks. The bill (HR 5552) passed with technical amendments, 412-6. Supporters of the legislation said some small manufacturers had been forced to take out short-term loans to pay the biweekly tax because their cash flow is limited and often unpredictable. Changing the tax schedule, they argued, would “take the burden off of business.”
Washington Outlook
Senate Democrats set aside their ambitious legislative schedule and dedicated the first two days of July to honoring Senator Robert C. Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who died early Monday.
Byrd’s body lied in repose in the Senate between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on July 1. It was the first such memorial in the Senate in 51 years. A service was held at 11 a.m. this Friday, July 2 in the West Virginia State Capitol building in Charleston, and a public funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on July 6 at Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, VA.
The next weekly legislative update will be July 16th when Congress returns from their Independence Day recess.
