Congressional
Climate Bill Tracking
|
|
Video Of The Day
 | |
Some Libyan Fighters Claim Gadhafi Surrounded
|
|
|
Greetings!
Please enjoy today's issue of the Congressional Climate newsletter, brought to you by Lobbyit.com!
|
|
Today's Hill Action:
THE SENATE:
The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m. for morning business. Thereafter, they will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R.1249, the America Invents Act.
SENATE COMMITTEES:
Senate Foreign Relations (10:00 a.m.): Hearings to examine the nomination of Wendy Ruth Sherman, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. SD-419.
Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs (10:00 a.m.): Hearings to examine defending the nation since 9/11, focusing on successful reforms and challenges ahead at the Dept. of Homeland Security. SD-342.
Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (10:00 a.m.): Business meeting to consider S.958, to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the program of payments to children's hospitals that operate graduate medical education programs, S.1094, to reauthorize the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-416), and the nominations of Constance Smith Barker, of Alabama, to be a Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Robert J. Zimmer, of Illinois, and Arnold F. Stancell, of Connecticut, both to be a Member of the National Science Board, National Science Foundation, Walter A. Barrows, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Railroad Retirement Board, Charles R. Korsmo, of New York, John H. Yopp, of Kentucky, Marcos Edward Galindo, of Idaho, and Maria E. Rengifo-Ruess, of Virginia, all to be a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, Robert C. Granger, of New Jersey, and Anthony Bryk, of California, both to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences, and Matan Aryeh Koch, of New York, to be a Member of the National Council on Disability. SD-106.
Senate Judiciary (10:00 a.m.): Hearings to examine cybercrime, focusing on updating the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act", including S.1151, to prevent and mitigate security theft, to ensure privacy, to provide notice of security breaches, and to enhance criminal penalties, law enforcement assistance, and other protections against security breaches, fraudulent access, and misuse of personally identifiable information. SD-226.
Senate Judiciary (2:30 p.m.): Hearings to examine the nominations of Evan Jonathan Wallach, of New York, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit, Dana L. Christensen, to be United States District Judge for the District of Montana, Cathy Ann Bencivengo, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, Gina Marie Groh, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia, and Margo Kitsy Brodie, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. SD-226.
Senate Appropriations (3:00 p.m.): Business meeting to markup proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2012 for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Energy and Water Development, and Homeland Security. SD-106.
THE HOUSE:
No meeting scheduled for today.
HOUSE COMMITTEES:
No meetings scheduled for today.
|
| 3-D budget feature opens in Congress
Senate Democrats moved aggressively Tuesday to add up to $7 billion for disaster aid even as they set the stage for deep cuts from President Barack Obama's defense budget to buy more room for domestic programs under strict 2012 spending caps.
Just weeks before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the twin actions served to sharpen the budget lines between the two political parties but also held out hope of real progress if each can keep faith with the blueprint negotiated in the August debt ceiling accord.
Coming off the sidelines, the White House endorsed the increased disaster aid, promising that the president will follow up with a formal request this week along the same lines. While Republicans are agitated over the prospect of a real freeze on new Pentagon spending, there seems to be a genuine desire not to fall back into the poisonous bickering that so characterized this past summer.
Indeed, the August debt deal envisioned almost equal cuts from both security and domestic appropriations to bring core discretionary spending down to about $1.043 trillion in 2012. And for the once-proud appropriations leadership, the next few months could be a moment of redemption - a chance to get back to basics and show what its clerks can do when given fixed spending targets to meet and freed of demands for pork barrel earmarks.
"I like to support my chairman every chance I get," Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) told POLITICO.
"We're capable of setting priorities while also reducing spending," added Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
To be sure, some jockeying remains, beginning in earnest Wednesday when Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is slated to lay down his plan for dividing the $1.043 trillion among the 12 annual spending bills.
Details are closely held, but to meet the $4 billion in cuts needed in security programs - scattered among the bills - Inouye is expected to begin by freezing Pentagon spending near 2011 levels, a reduction of at least $26 billion from Obama's request.
The big exception, following on the START treaty debate last year, is an estimated $528 million increase in the Energy Department to meet commitments to the GOP on nuclear weapons. At the same time, the Homeland Security budget faces a real cut of $661 million below 2011 levels and even then must raise airline security fees charged passengers to cover $280 million of its costs.
The State Department and foreign aid are expected to fare worse, facing cuts of close to $3.5 billion - a real concern for the chairman.
Domestic programs, which bore the brunt of earlier cuts in April, will again be reduced by Inouye, but the more telling action here is on the House side, where Republicans are beginning to show some give themselves.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) has been coy thus far about his plans for adapting to the August debt deal, but Democrats expect he will have to tip his hand this week when the two largest domestic appropriations bills are slated to be marked up by his subcommittees.
Both measures have stalled, given the severity of the initial spending cuts demanded by the House Republican budget resolution last spring, which proposed to cut nondefense programs by as much as $45 billion below already reduced 2011 levels. While Rogers has given no confirmation, it's expected that revised allocations could add back as much as $22 billion now between the two bills covering transportation, housing, labor, education, and health and human services agencies.
This sets up a framework that makes it much more possible for meaningful negotiations between the two parties, but as the price tag for disaster aid rises, Republicans are nervous about giving too much ground for fear of angering tea party conservatives who were never happy with the August deal.
That agreement included specific provisions to treat up to $11.3 billion in disaster aid separately from core appropriations under the $1.043 trillion discretionary cap. But as a practical political matter, Republican leaders risk being embarrassed if the combined totals end up exceeding 2011 levels, after all the talk of reducing government spending.
At this stage, the $1.043 trillion is measured against $1.050 trillion in 2011 appropriations, including disaster assistance. That's a $7 billion difference, and the administration and Democrats are already talking of adding $5 billion to $6 billion above the $1.8 billion that had been requested earlier this year.
In back-to-back meetings Tuesday, for example, Senate appropriations subcommittees first added $1.045 billion to the Corps of Engineers 2012 budget for disaster aid, chiefly in response to flooding earlier this year along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Minutes later, a second panel provided $6 billion for FEMA's disaster relief fund, an increase of $3.35 billion over 2011 and more than three times what the administration had first requested for the coming year.
Slow to the gate, the White House is now prepared to go even further. In a letter to the appropriations committees on Tuesday, Budget Director Jack Lew said the president will be forwarding a budget amendment with an additional $4.8 billion on top of his initial request for the cash-strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster fund.
That would add up to approximately $6.6 billion in 2012 for that account and given the concentration of recent storms, including Hurricane Irene, there is already real concern that more immediate money will also be needed to get through these last weeks of the current fiscal year.
|
|
GOP issues pre-emptive strike on Obama jobs plan
President Barack Obama will come to Capitol Hill Thursday with a plan to create jobs. Senate Republicans argued Wednesday his policies have done nothing but destroy them.
In a preemptive strike ahead of Obama's speech, Republicans blamed the president for sitting on three long-stalled free-trade agreements and said the economic crisis and unemployment had worsened under his administration.
"We don't blame the president for problems he inherited, but we do believe he ought to accept responsibility for making our economy worse," Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander said at a news conference Wednesday, flanked by about a dozen GOP colleagues. "Unemployment is worse. Housing is down and debt is up. The number of jobs lost is worse.
"And part of the problem is the president's own policies have thrown a big, wet blanket over job creation in America."
Obama's jobs package - a combination of infrastructure spending, tax cuts and aid for state and local governments - is expected to cost as much as $300 billion. And Republicans were quick to slam the president for proposing more spending.
"If government spending were the answer, we'd be in the middle of a boom right now," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after Wednesday's caucus lunches. He said Obama's decision last week to delay stricter ozone standards "will produce way more jobs than anything he might recommend tomorrow night."
The most glaring offense, Republicans said, is that Obama has failed to send Congress free-trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea, even as he's toured the country urging lawmakers to pass the legislation. The president is expected to speak about the agreements in his speech to Congress on Thursday.
"The fact is, Mr. President, Congress cannot act on these agreements until you send them to us," said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance Committee
The trade deals, completed four years ago during the George W. Bush administration, would result in tens of billions of dollars in exports and 250,000 new jobs, senators said. But they've languished for months as the two parties tangled over whether aid for U.S. workers harmed by trade agreements - a Democratic priority - should be tied to the deals.
During the August recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and McConnell announced they had reached a deal on moving forward this month on both the aid package and trade deals. And Republicans said Wednesday the hundreds of millions of dollars in workers aid, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, would be offset by spending cuts to a separate trade reauthorization bill.
"This is about jobs," said freshman Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who served as U.S. trade representative in the second Bush administration. "With 9 percent unemployment, no new jobs in August, this is an obvious place we all should be looking because by expanding exports, we will increase jobs."
Reid told reporters after the caucus lunches that he was headed to the White House later Wednesday to meet with Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Director of Legislative Affairs Rob Nabors about the trade bills.
"I think we have a way forward," said Reid, adding that the Senate would only take up the trade bills once the House passes the workers aid. "We will get trade assistance done before we do the trade bills. Otherwise we won't do the trade bills."
|
The Obama administration on Wednesday stepped up criticism of calls by some members of Congress to withhold or slash U.S. funding of the United Nations, saying such moves were "backward" and would seriously undermine America's role as a world leader.
Republican-led efforts in Congress could force the U.S. to withhold half of its annual contribution to the world body. A senior State Department official said the administration's engagement with the United Nations and promise to pay its dues had bolstered once-languishing U.S. influence at the world body that should not be squandered.
"We oppose the backwards calls we again are hearing to withhold U.S. dues, given the impact doing so would have on U.S. influence and leadership across the UN system," said Esther Brimmer, the assistant secretary of state for international organizations.
Brimmer did not specify the target of her criticism, but it was clearly directed at a bill introduced in the House last week by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., with 52 co-sponsors. The measure would block U.S. funds for any United Nations entity that supports giving Palestine an elevated status at the U.N., and ban U.S. contributions to the U.N. Human Rights Council and an anti-racism conference seen as a platform for anti-Israel rhetoric.
Ros-Lehtinen, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has long been a critic of the United Nations. Her legislation would also withhold a portion of U.S. dues to the international body if it does not change its funding system so that dues are paid on a voluntary rather than assessed basis. Her proposal would withhold 50 percent of the U.S. nonvoluntary regular budget contributions if, after two years, 80 percent of the U.N. regular budget is not funded on a voluntary rather than assessed basis.
"The administration is entitled to its opinion, but it's not entitled to its own facts," she said in a statement. "Our bill's purpose is to leverage our contributions to reform the U.N. and make it work again, not to attack the U.N. Our bill is about strengthening U.S. global leadership, not reducing it."
Ros-Lehtinen added: "It's disappointing that the administration continues to aim its fire at the U.N.'s critics instead of at the U.N.'s problems."
Brimmer dismissed as "alarmist" concerns that the U.N. is working against U.S. interests. While she allowed that the U.N. needs reform, she maintained that could be better achieved with more and not less U.S. involvement. She said U.S. participation in numerous U.N. agencies had helped to reduce unfair criticism of Israel and gave powerful voice to efforts to condemn human rights abusers.
"We reject arguments made by some that would cede global leadership to those who would not act in our interest, or abandon the real, tangible gains that have come with enhanced U.S. multilateral engagement," Brimmer told an audience at the U.S. Institute for Peace. "We reject also the alarmist suggestions that the U.N. is somehow running roughshod over U.S. interests. Aside from being factually wrong, they ignore the many ways that U.S. multilateral diplomacy advances our national security and supports the security of our allies, partners and friends."
U.S. membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council, in particular, has brought at least some credibility back to the much-maligned body that the Bush administration boycotted, Brimmer argued. Withdrawing from it, as some lawmakers want, would be disastrous.
"Right now, the one thing we could do to reverse those gains would be to walk away and hand leadership back to those who would rather the Human Rights Council not be a serious human rights body," she said. "Yet that is exactly what some are now proposing we do: Pull down the flag and go home. Leave the Human Rights Council to the human rights abusers. Announce in a full voice that until HRC membership achieves perfection, the United States will treat the entire organization with contempt."
"And for good measure, broaden these self-inflicted injuries by withholding U.S. funding across the UN system," Brimmer said.
In the 2010 budget year the U.S. provided $7.7 billion to the U.N. for its regular budget, peacekeeping and other programs, up from $6.1 billion the previous year."
The State Department spoke out against the legislation after it was introduced, but Brimmer's comments significantly raised the rhetoric of the opposition ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly session set to begin in New York later this month.
|
|
|
Until tomorrow,
Lobbyit.com |
|
|
