The only thing clear by the end of last week was that Congress needs more time to negotiate a final budget for FY 2016. By Friday both houses of Congress adopted an extension of federal funding from its expiration on December 11 to December 16 of this week. Reports were kept confidential but what has
This week the Senate is expected to complete action on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), more commonly referred to as the No Child Left Behind Act since the last reauthorization in 2002. The House approved the new version S. 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act, on Tuesday with an overwhelming
The House is expected to re-approve a reconciliation bill that guts the ACA and cuts Planned Parenthood funding this week. The Senate redesigned an earlier House version in an effort to attract enough Republican Senators. The bill passed the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 52 to 47. Two Republican Senators (Kirk R-IL, and
Appropriations decisions are likely to come to a head in the next ten days. The deadline before the government runs out of funding is December 11. While staffers and committee members continued to work on allocating funding between the 12 spending categories and various priorities within those 12 committee jurisdictions it is still unclear how
Last week Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) issued a call for emergency funding to address the heroin and opioid abuse epidemic. Senator Shaheen’s proposal would provide supplemental appropriations totaling $600 million to programs at the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services and draw the funding as emergency spending meaning that it
Appropriations staffers and committee members continued to work toward beating a December 11 deadline when the government will run out of money. Despite the ongoing work it is unclear whether or not issues around policy riders and, as of last week the issue of Syrian refugees, will prevent a deal before the government shuts down.
On November 9, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report they had provided to the Senate Finance committee in October. The report: HHS Could Do More to Support States’ Efforts to Keep Children in Family-Based Care examined eight states including Washington, Kansas, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Connecticut and Colorado by interviewing 41 stakeholders
The Senate is struggling to move a reconciliation bill that would repeal parts of the ACA and cut-off federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Last month the House of Representatives passed a reconciliation measure based on an instruction included in the spring budget resolution. The legislation is political message bill that will certainly be vetoed by
Shortly after Republicans approved Ryan as the Speaker, the House approved the negotiated budget deal by a vote of 266 to 167 with 187 Democrats and 79 Republicans supporting it. It was immediately sent over to the Senate using a previous bill that allowed Senate leaders to fast track the debate on the deal. Early
The Appropriations Committees are now working on a legislative omnibus spending bill for this year with new subcommittee allocations, known as 302(b)s. Policy riders could come up during this process. While this set higher caps for FY 2017 which at least avoids a spring-summer-fall debate over spending caps, it is unclear how appropriations riders including