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Kaitlyn McClure

Kaitlyn McClure is a policy advisor in Covington’s Public Policy Practice, leveraging her experience in government and politics to provide strategic advisory services and support to clients with legislative matters before government agencies and Congress.

Kaitlyn is also a member of the firm’s Election and Political Law Practice Group. She advises clients on their registration and reporting obligations under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act, state and local lobbying laws, and the operation and reporting obligations of their connected PACs.

Before joining the firm, Kaitlyn was the Associate Vice President of Client Relations at DDC Advocacy. Prior to working for DDC, Kaitlyn served as the strategy assistant for former presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney. Her experience also includes working in the U.S. Senate as a legislative assistant for Republican Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

Contact:Read more about Kaitlyn McClureEmail

Members of the House of Representatives are back in their districts this week for a scheduled district work period, while the Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of S. 524, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA).  On Monday afternoon, the Senate will return to work and is expected to vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment to CARA sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and then on a motion to invoke cloture on the underlying bill.  The cloture motions are expected to achieve the necessary 60 votes to limit debate on the bill, setting up a mid-week vote on final passage of the bipartisan opioid and heroin addiction legislation.

Following completion of its consideration of S. 524, it is unclear what the Senate may take up next.  Press reports previously indicated that the chamber might return to consideration of comprehensive energy legislation, S. 2012, which stalled in February over an amendment to provide emergency funding assistance to Flint, Michigan to assist with decontamination of the community’s drinking water system.  Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters filed stand-alone legislation to provide federal assistance to address water infrastructure issues, including the Flint situation, and have been working with Senate leadership to negotiate a path forward.  This water-infrastructure bill, S. 2579, is expected to be taken up for consideration separately from S. 2012, although the timeline is still uncertain.  Senator Peters told reporters last week that several senators had placed holds on the water-infrastructure legislation, preventing it from advancing, over funding offsets.  One of those holds is by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who has said he would object to a unanimous consent agreement that would allow the Senate to complete action on the energy bill and then turn to the water-infrastructure bill.  And Democrats will not allow the Senate to return to the energy bill without a commitment that the bill to address the Flint situation will get floor consideration.  Until the holds are resolved, the Senate does not appear able to return to the energy bill.  Although there are other potential legislative items that are ready for floor consideration and could be brought up by the Majority Leader, no announcements have been made about what might follow CARA.

Also this week Senate committees continue their hearings with agency heads on President Obama’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget request.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will be appearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services regarding the proposed budget for the Department of the Treasury, while Secretary Jeh Johnson will be testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the Homeland Security Department’s budget submission.  Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to appear before the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has an active schedule this week.  U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be appearing before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning for a hearing on the Justice Department’s proposed budget and oversight of the Department.  On Wednesday afternoon the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will review the enforcement of antitrust laws with Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, and Edith Ramirez, Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, scheduled to testify.  The full committee is also scheduled to hold a Thursday markup of S. 2390, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2015, along with the consideration of several pending nominations.  Fireworks over Senate Republicans’ stated refusal to consider any Supreme Court nomination President Obama submits are likely at the Judiciary Committee’s first markup since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Both the Finance and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees will be reviewing implementation of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday.  Members of the Finance Committee will discuss the integrity of Healthcare.gov enrollment and operations with the Director of Audit Services at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Seto Bagdoyan, and Vicki L. Robinson from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Office.  This hearing follows a July 2015 hearing held after the GAO issued a preliminary report that documented how its investigators were able to sign up fraudulently for coverage under the healthcare law and receive insurance subsidies.  The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be examining the CO-OP loan program established by the Act.  While the program was intended to create non-profit insurers to compete against for-profit insurance companies, it has largely failed in states across the country due to low enrollment and net losses. The CO-OP Programs in 12 states have closed, leaving the hundreds of thousands of people enrolled to find new health insurance coverage.
Continue Reading This Week in Congress – March 7, 2016

The release of President Obama’s eighth and final budget requesting funds for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 is likely to take up a great deal of attention in Washington, D.C. this week, but on Capitol Hill the Senate will be attempting to forge a path forward on comprehensive energy legislation that has stalled after two weeks of consideration, while the House will be taking up a number of suspensions related to veterans affairs and delving into legislation on scientific research and disclosure of nutrition information to consumers.

The Senate returns on Monday with a vote scheduled on a judicial nomination. On Wednesday, the Senate will consider H.R. 757, legislation to impose stricter sanctions on North Korea. Introduced earlier last year, the legislation is moving forward due to North Korea’s alleged hydrogen bomb test in January (although public reporting indicates that experts are uniformly agreed that the test was too small to be a hydrogen device). North Korea is now planning a test of a long-range ballistic missile, so the timing of the consideration of the legislation is not accidental. The House-passed sanctions legislation being considered in the Senate would require the Administration to sanction any person or entity that has engaged in activities or transactions in North Korea related to weapons of mass destruction, significant arms, luxury goods, money laundering, counterfeiting, censorship, or human rights abuses. The bill also extends authority to the President to sanction individuals engaging in financial transactions to support any of North Korea’s illicit activities or cyber-threats.

It is likely the Senate will also consider the conference report to the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The customs bill is the final piece of a major four-part trade package, which included Trade Promotion Authority, that moved through Congress last year. In addition to funding the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, the customs bill also provides streamlined rules to stop importers from evading U.S. antidumping and countervailing duties, provides stronger protections for intellectual property and includes language intended to address currency manipulation. The customs conference report passed the House in December by a vote of 256-158. It is has been delayed in the Senate over its inclusion of language making permanent the ban on taxing the Internet. Proponents of legislation to allow states to impose a sales tax on remote sales, led by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Republicans Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), had sought to use the permanent extension of the Internet-tax ban as a vehicle for their legislation and have sought to block the customs bill in order to peel that section out of the bill. They appear to have failed and the bill is poised to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Obama.

As mentioned above, behind the scenes in the Senate this week, leadership will be attempting to find some path forward on S. 2012, a comprehensive, bipartisan energy bill that has been the pending business before the chamber over the past two weeks. After working through numerous amendments, action on the bill hit an impasse over an amendment to provide $600 million in federal emergency assistance to Flint, Michigan to address lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted two cloture votes on S. 2012 last Thursday, but Democrats filibustered both attempts to close debate on the bill, stating they would not move forward without including adequate assistance for Flint. Press reports indicate negotiations over the funding continued into the weekend, and Majority Leader McConnell expressed his hope to “salvage” the underlying energy bill. Either way, further floor action on the bill is unlikely until after the Senate returns from its one-week break for President’s Day the week of February 15.

On the other side of the Capitol, the House is scheduled to convene for legislative business on Tuesday, with votes expected on a dozen bills under suspension of the rules, a majority of which were reported favorably by the Veterans Affairs Committee.

On Wednesday, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 3293, the Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, subject to a rule. The controversial legislation sponsored by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) would require the National Science Foundation to make “an affirmative determination, justified in writing, that the grant or agreement promotes the progress of science in the United States […]” prior to awarding federal funds through a grant or cooperative agreement for basic scientific research or education. This language was included in the House-passed America COMPETES Act, a broader research-funding reform bill that passed the House on a partisan vote last May. While intended to ensure greater accountability in the federal funding of research, many in the scientific community are opposed to what they fear will produce political interference in the award of federal grants. The Democratic conference is expected to oppose the bill.

Following the conclusion of the debate on H.R. 3293, the House will begin consideration of H.R. 3442, the Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act, a bill that would restructure the manner in which increases in the federal debt limit are considered. Instead of simply providing to Congress a date at which the Treasury would reach its borrowing limit and requesting a debt limit increase, under this legislation the Secretary of the Treasury would be required to submit to Congress reports on the state of the national debt, drivers and composition of the debt, and future debt projections, as well as a plan for how the U.S. will meet debt obligations if the debt limit is raised. The Treasury Secretary would also be required to appear before House and Senate committees to testify about the national debt and the administration’s debt-reduction proposals. Congressional approval of a debt-limit increase would still be necessary, although U.S. borrowing authority is currently authorized through March 2017 under a budget agreement negotiated last October by former Speaker of the House John Boehner. Consideration of H.R. 3293 will be subject to a rule and is expected to stretch into Thursday.

The final item on the House agenda before its scheduled President’s Day recess will be consideration of H.R. 2017, the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2015, subject to a rule. This legislation would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act to revise the information certain restaurants and retail food establishments must disclose about nutrition to the consumer. Under the Affordable Care Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was authorized to issue new rules on the disclosure of nutritional information for menu items. The FDA issued two new rules in 2014 requiring that certain chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments, grocery, and convenience stores with 20 or more locations disclose certain nutrient information for standard menu items. Both rules were scheduled to be implemented at the end of last year. After a great deal of push back from the restaurant, fast food, and retail communities over the requirements due to the costs and burdens they imposed, Congress authorized a delay in their implementation until December 2016. The delay was mandated so that Congress could itself play a role in the resolution of the issue, and key legislators have been working with industry, trade, and other groups to navigate a path forward. H.R. 2017 would clarify the FDA requirements and facilitate compliance for certain industry sectors without undoing the regulatory scheme to provide consumers with adequate nutritional information. The legislation was reported favorably out of the House Energy & Commerce Committee by a 36-12 vote.

The President is expected to release his final budget request, for FY2017, on Tuesday morning and many congressional committees will meet this week to review various provisions of the request. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will appear before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday to discuss revenue proposals in the President’s budget, and before the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday to discuss President Obama’s budget proposals for the Department of Treasury. Sylvia Burwell, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, is also scheduled to appear before the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is also scheduled to appear before Senate Finance Committee as well as the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meets Wednesday morning to review Air Traffic Control Reform Proposals, a provision of a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill. The current authorization for FAA activity and funding is set to expire March 31, a six-month extension that was enacted last year as a stopgap measure to give legislators more time to work through an agreement on a long-term reauthorization. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) introduced the Aviation Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization, or AIRR Act, in the House last week. This legislation would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration and its funding until 2022. His legislation, however contains a controversial proposal to remove air traffic control from FAA ownership and authority and place it under the control of a new non-profit, non-governmental organization, which many in the industry and the committee’s Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) oppose.
Continue Reading This Week in Congress – February 8, 2016

Now that Washington, D.C. has largely recovered from the impact of Winter Storm Jonas, lawmakers can expect a flurry of activity to resume in the House and Senate to make up for the postponed votes, hearings, and other events that were canceled due to the storm; many of these have simply been pushed into this week’s schedule.  Both chambers are scheduled to return on Monday with much on their respective agendas.

The Senate plans to resume consideration of bipartisan, comprehensive energy legislation, S. 2012, when it returns to session on Monday.  The bill is the pending business, debate having started on it last week, and consideration of amendments is expected throughout the course of the week.  More than 100 amendments are currently pending to the bill, and while a number of non-controversial amendments were approved last week, several controversial (and partisan) proposals could be considered this week.  Among these are a Republican amendment to reverse a recent Interior Department moratorium on new coal mine leases on public lands; other Republicans amendments to obstruct energy and environmental regulations; and Democratic amendments on climate change.

As discussed in last week’s column, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will be seeking to manage the open amendment process (itself a reflection of the continued Republican leadership’s commitment to restoring the more traditional approaches to Senate debate after years in which then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) continually blocked consideration of amendments on almost all legislative vehicles) in order to maintain the bipartisan support for S. 2012 seen during the Committee’s markup of the bill last summer.

A new challenge to passage of S. 2012 was introduced last week when several Democratic members introduced an amendment aimed at providing emergency resources to the Flint, Michigan community to address severe contamination from lead and other contaminants in the city’s drinking water.  Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters are proposing that the $600 million assistance provided through the amendment be considered emergency funding and therefore would not need to be offset by cuts elsewhere.  Republicans, however, are likely to oppose the funding without an offset.  Press reports indicate that negotiations over the Flint amendment are ongoing but, as with the other pending partisan amendments, its inclusion or rejection could shift support for the underlying bill.

The House is scheduled to return on Monday, with votes expected on eight bills under suspension of the rules, with four of these reported out of the Financial Services Committee and three out of the Foreign Affairs Committee.  On Tuesday the House will consider H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015, a broad and bipartisan bill to overhaul housing assistance programs.  Consideration of H.R. 3700 will be subject to a rule.

Members will then turn their attention to two bills aimed at thwarting two policy initiatives of President Obama and his Administration.  The debate will provide two messaging opportunities for Republican members in this election year.

The first is H.R. 3662, the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act.  The bill would prevent the Administration from offering any sanctions relief to individuals or financial institutions in Iran until it can certify to Congress that the particular individual or institution has not had involvement with terrorist groups, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, or Iran’s ballistic missile or conventional weapons programs.  The bill is an effort by Republicans in Congress to reassert some relevance in foreign policy matters.  A prior vote on H.R. 3662 that occurred in January was declared void and a new vote scheduled in order to garner the support of a two-thirds majority necessary to override a presidential veto, one that has already been threatened by President Obama.  The earlier vote on the bill, on January 13, came less than one day after a tense international incident in which Iran detained ten American sailors and two U.S. Navy vessels that had wandered into Iranian waters.  Consideration of the legislation is also occurring as Iran is re-entering the global economy after sanctions were lifted in the wake of the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.  On January 16, the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany lifted some economic sanctions against Tehran after the country fulfilled necessary obligations agreed to in the July 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement which required the country to disable portions of its existing nuclear infrastructure.

The second item to roll back the President’s agenda is a vote to override the President’s veto of H.R. 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015, the reconciliation bill passed and vetoed last year.  The measure  repeals five core provisions of the Affordable Care Act and places a moratorium on federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year.  The bill initially passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 240-181, which is short of the necessary two-thirds majority to override the President’s veto.

During the remainder of the week, the House is expected to resume consideration of legislation reported favorably out of the House Financial Services Committee.  On Wednesday the House will take up  H.R. 1675, the Encouraging Employee Ownership Act, subject to a rule.  This legislation would make it easier for private companies to award stock as part of an employee’s compensation.  On Thursday, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 766, the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015, subject to a rule.  The bill would prevent government agencies from using their regulatory powers to force businesses in certain industries to stop doing business.  H.R. 766 “prohibits a federal banking agency from formally or informally suggesting, requesting, or ordering a depository institution to terminate … specific customer account” without good reason, and excludes “reputation risk” as a reason.
Continue Reading This Week in Congress – February 1, 2016

What was going already to be a shortened week on Capitol Hill due to the Democrats’ annual conference became even shorter when Washington was hit by a major snow storm on Friday evening and all day Saturday.  On Friday, the House preemptively canceled Monday votes and several committees postponed hearings based on the forecast; on Sunday the House announced it would cancel all votes for the week.  This announcement is less dramatic than it appears, because, as noted, the House was not going to be in session on Thursday or Friday to allow Democratic members to attend their annual policy conference.  Due to the House’s announcement on Sunday, only the Senate is currently scheduled to return and hold votes this week.

The Senate was scheduled to convene on Tuesday and vote on a judicial nomination in the afternoon, but that vote has been postponed to Wednesday evening.  The Senate intends to begin consideration of S. 2012, Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015.  The broad, bipartisan energy policy measure, reported 18-4 out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last summer, will be the Senate’s first attempt at action on comprehensive energy legislation since 2007.  The five titles of S. 2012 provide updates and improvements to national energy efficiency, grid infrastructure, energy supply, government accountability, and land conservation.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to keep an open amendment process during consideration of S. 2012, and press reports indicate senators have plenty of  additional provisions they would like to offer as amendments to the bill, many of them highly partisan.

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) has discussed his intent to offer an amendment to reverse a three-year moratorium on new coal leasing on public land announced by the Obama Administration last week and opposed by many members that represent coal-producing states.  Other potential amendments to curb agency regulations are expected, as well as statements on climate change and an amendment providing reforms to the hydroelectric power permitting process, provisions which were removed from the bill during committee markup due to partisan differences.  It will be a fine line for bill managers to navigate the amendment process while ensuring that the current bipartisan support does not completely disintegrate.

The House of Representatives passed its own version of energy modernization legislation in December, by a largely partisan vote of 249-174.  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) managed a process that produced the Senate bill which was favorably reported on a bipartisan 18-4 votes.  Chairman Murkowski has indicated she would like to take S. 2012 to a conference committee with the House bill in order to reconcile differences between the two versions, should the Senate bill pass.

Also possible this week or in the near future is a resolution to authorize the use of military force against the terrorist entity that calls itself the Islamic State.  Although some members of both parties in both chambers have been calling for consideration of such a resolution, Leader McConnell surprised his chamber and observers by adding such a resolution to the Senate calendar last week.  Timing of the consideration of the resolution is unclear. The hearing schedule is highly uncertain, especially on the House side, in light of Sunday’s cancellation of votes for the week.  The brief discussion of key hearings that follows should be read with an understanding that many, or perhaps all, of the House hearings listed and discussed will be postponed, as is likely true for the Senate hearings scheduled prior to Wednesday afternoon.

Related to the federal debt and deficit, House and Senate Committees plan to review the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Outlook this week, as the agency within the legislative branch is scheduled to release its ten-year projections.  Although the projections are due for release today, expect a delay in that release as well.  A brief summary and projections report released last week warned that the federal budget deficit will rise this year for the first time since 2009, to $544 billion and the national debt to rise to $23.8 trillion by 2026.  The ten-year projection for the deficit for fiscal years 2016 – 2026, without any major policy changes enacted, is an increase to $9.4 trillion. CBO Director Keith Hall is currently scheduled to appear before the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday and House Budget Committee on Wednesday.

Health-related issues are a focus of hearings on both sides of the Capitol this week.  The opioid epidemic in America is the topic of two separate Senate hearings.  The Senate Special Aging Committee is currently scheduled to hold a field hearing in Ashburn, Virginia on Monday regarding the misuse and abuse of opioids among older Americans, while the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet Wednesday to discuss methods of confronting the prescription drug and heroin abuse crisis.  The Senate Judiciary Committee will also meet Tuesday to discuss mental health issues as they relate to the criminal justice system.  The Senate HELP Committee has scheduled a hearing related to generic prescription drugs.
Continue Reading This Week in Congress – January 25, 2016

After more than 5 years of negotiations between partner countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was finalized in October 2015 and will be confirmed through a formal signing ceremony on February 4th in…
Continue Reading What’s Next for TPP: Will Congress Ratify in 2016?

A shorter-than-usual column for what is almost certain to be the final week of legislative business in 2015.  While much has been accomplished this year, one major legislative obstacle remains: passage of a $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations measure for Fiscal Year 2016.

With Hanukah underway and the Christmas holiday approaching,…
Continue Reading This Week in Congress – December 14, 2015