This will be a relatively quiet week on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives is on a scheduled district work period, and the national observance of Veterans Day on Wednesday means the Senate will be in for an interrupted, but busy, week.
The Senate is scheduled to resume legislative business on Monday and will vote on the nomination for the U.S. Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
On Tuesday morning, the Senate is expected to vote on S. 1356, the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This legislation is a revised version of the defense authorization. This bill complies with the spending limits established in the Bipartisan Budget Act passed by Congress at the end of October. The previous version of the NDAA was vetoed by President Obama, largely due to objections over its spending levels, although the White House also raised objections to language restricting the Administration’s ability to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The recently negotiated and approved budget framework for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 includes increases for both defense and non-defense spending above limits set by the 2011 sequester. S. 1356 abides by these new topline numbers and contains a $5 billion reduction in Pentagon spending from the previous iteration of the bill. The House passed S. 1356 last Thursday on a bipartisan 370-58 vote, and the legislation is expected to receive similar support for swift passage through the Senate. With the budget issue resolved, the White House is unlikely to issue a veto threat over Guantanamo restrictions or other issues.
Following passage of the FY 2016 NDAA, the Senate is expected to begin consideration of its first individual appropriations bill for FY 2016, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. The annual appropriations process, under regular order, is supposed to be wrapped up before the end of each fiscal year, by September 30. As we have discussed previously, this year’s process has been held up by disagreement over topline spending numbers, with congressional Democrats demanding that any increase in defense spending be met with a like increase for non-defense programs. In the Senate, Democrats have been successful in filibustering the Republican majority’s attempts to bring any single appropriations bill to the floor, and their stonewalling of the process played a large part in the eventual negotiation of the Bipartisan Budget Act. With the budget deal approved, Democratic senators last week supported a motion that allows the Senate to proceed to S. 2029 this week. The Senate will take up an amendment to increase spending in the bill to meet the levels established by the budget agreement.
Although Senate Democrats allowed debate to proceed on the so-called MilCon-VA bill, that does not foretell smooth sailing for the appropriations process; there is still a lot of negotiation left to occur before the December 11 expiration of current funding. The Bipartisan Budget Act may have settled topline spending levels, but how that money is allocated among various programs will be up for debate. In addition, Republican efforts to include policy riders to the spending bills are sure to provoke Democratic opposition, further complicating the effort to enact all 12 annual spending bills before December 11.
The process moving forward is unclear. Before passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act, the House had approved six of the 12 bills. Press reports indicate that new Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is polling the members of his conference on whether to resume consideration of individual spending bills or start from scratch and allow appropriators to draft an omnibus bill. As discussed by our colleagues, <https://www.globalpolicywatch.com/2015/11/appropriations-2016-the-tough-road-ahead-for-speaker-ryan/>, in order to avoid a December shutdown, the House and Senate will need to craft spending bills or an omnibus bill that will not be filibustered in the Senate, and due to Republican efforts to include policy riders on controversial issues, there is currently no clear path on how to complete action on the spending bills and keep the entire government open past December 11, although Republican leaders continue to insist there will be no government shut-down this year.
Behind the scenes this week, the House and Senate transportation committees will be meeting to hammer out the details of a long-term highway authorization bill. Before recessing last week, the House overwhelmingly passed a six-year, $325 billion transportation bill that would authorize funding for highway programs. The Senate had passed its version of a six-year, $317 billion transportation bill earlier this summer. The Senate bill also included a provision to reauthorize the now-expired charter for the Export-Import Bank through 2019; the House-passed version includes that provision, so it appears the Bank will be able to resume operations once the conference report is approved. A bicameral conference committee will have to be established to resolve differences between the two versions of the legislation and produce a final bill that can be considered by both chambers; the House has already appointed its conferees, and the Senate is likely to do so this week. The conference committee will have to work quickly because the current extension of highway-program authorizations and funding is set to expire on November 20. The key differences that will have to be resolved between the two versions of the bill are over the ways each chamber pays for the programs. Should the conference committee produce a conference report and move the report through both chambers before Thanksgiving, it will be the first time in ten years that Congress will be authorizing a long-term transportation and infrastructure program.
There is a very light hearing schedule this week, due to the House of Representatives being in recess, and the observance of the federal holiday on Wednesday. The campaign against the Islamic State continues to be the focus of congressional hearings. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be briefed Tuesday afternoon on the campaign against the terrorist group in Syria. On Thursday morning, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will discuss Islamic State safe havens. The hearing will no doubt also focus on the reports that IS may be responsible for blowing up the Russian passenger jet in the Sinai Peninsula last week. A full list of hearings occurring in the Senate is included below:
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Senate Committees
Examining 30 Years of Goldwater Reform
Senate Armed Services
Full Committee Hearing
9:30 a.m., G-50 Dirksen Bldg.
Foreign Aid Legislation, Nominations, Tax Treaties
Senate Foreign Relations
Full Committee Markup
9:45 a.m., 419 Dirksen Bldg.
Update on the Campaign Against ISIS in Syria
Senate Foreign Relations
Full Committee Closed Briefing
10 a.m., SVC-217 Capitol Visitor Center
Intelligence Issues
Senate Select Intelligence
Full Committee Closed Briefing
2:30 p.m., 219 Hart Bldg.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Senate Committees
Spending on Unauthorized Programs
Senate Budget
Full Committee Hearing
10:30 a.m., 608 Dirksen Bldg.
Countering ISIS: How Safe Havens Threaten the Homeland
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Full Committee Hearing
9:30 a.m., 342 Dirksen Bldg.
Intelligence Issues
Senate Select Intelligence
Full Committee Closed Briefing
2:30 p.m., 219 Hart Bldg.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Senate Committees
The Impact of Federal Regulations: A Case Study of Recently Issued Rules
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Full Committee Field Hearing
2 p.m., Dreyfus University Center, 230 Laird Rm., 1015 Reserve Street, Stevens Point, Wisconsin