Appropriations

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a 2014 Homeland Security funding bill with a bipartisan voice vote. The bill is expected on the House floor in June. 

In a surprise development, the committee approved an amendment from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), which would effectively end immigration from Brazil.

The provision was included in order to pressure Brazil to extradite Brazilian-born Claudia Hoerig to the United States for trial in the murder of her husband, Air Force Major Karl Hoerig. The Ryan amendment does not affect travel visas or visas for temporary workers, an aide said. 

It was passed despite urgings from Homeland subcommittee Chairman John Carter (R-Texas) and ranking member David Price (D-N.C.) that it would have far-reaching implications.  The text of the amendment withholds all funding from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process any immigration visa request for a Brazilian national.

"Major Hoerig’s killer must be returned to the United States to stand trial and we must send a message to Brazil that their conduct won’t be tolerated. This is only going to get more painful for Government of Brazil until Claudia Hoerig is extradited," Ryan said after the vote. 

Overall the bill increases funding for the Department of Homeland Security, compared to the level it is operating under after the March 1 sequestration cuts went into effect.

The $38.9 billion funding level is approximately $981 million above the current budget, but a cut of $618 million from the pre-sequester level. 

During the markup, Democrats once again tried to attach an amendment that would replace the 2013 sequester and lower 2014 overall budget cap with other deficit savings. 

Only a fraction of the GAO's recommended cuts targeting duplicative programs have been carried out.

The full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved the first of 12 annual spending bills for 2014, a $73.3 billion measure funding military construction and veterans affairs programs.

The bill is the least controversial of the 12 annual bills and, reflecting that, it was approved on a voice vote.

The bill increases spending by $1.4 billion above the enact 2013 level. This comes out to about $2.4 billion more in spending compared to the post-sequestration level the government is currently operating on after automatic cuts came into effect on March 1. 

Democrats supported the bill but were adamantly opposed to an overall 2014 spending plan for all 12 bills that the GOP majority also adopted at the same markup.That plan has deep cuts to social programs to pay for increased defense spending. 

The veterans affairs bills makes an attempt to address an embarrassing backlog in veterans benefits claims.

It supports an increase of 94 claims processor and requires the VA to report monthly to Congress on the backlog. 

“They may as well get ready to be constantly harassed and frankly starved moneywise until they get this right,” committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who is running for Senate, offered an amendment to cut claims processor pay by 25 percent if a 25 percent reduction in the claims backlog is not reduced 180 days after Oct. 1.  He withdrew the amendment but committee leaders promised to work with him on the proposal as the bill comes to the House floor in early June.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), whose district contains a huge number of federal workers,  offered an amendment to end the three year pay freeze for federal workers covered by the bill. The amendment was defeated on a 23 to 25 vote with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) voting with Democrats. 

The bill, authored by Rep. Van Hollen, contains $181 billion in replacement deficit reduction over 10 years.

Congress’s probe into the inappropriate scrutiny applied to Tea Party groups by the Internal Revenue Service will continue in earnest this week, headlining a busy stretch before the Memorial Day recess.

The House Ways and Means Committee kicked off the grilling with a hearing Friday, and the Senate Finance Committee is next up with a Tuesday hearing on the matter.

The House Oversight Committee will tackle the matter Wednesday, hearing from former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman. Lois Lerner, the IRS official who apologized for the practice and set off the scandal, has also been invited to testify.

Meanwhile, the Senate is slated to take up the 2013 farm bill this week.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to complete the bill before the Memorial Day recess. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported out the $955 billion bill on Tuesday with a bipartisan 15-5 vote.

Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) predicted a strong vote in line with the 64-35 vote the farm bill enjoyed last year. That 2012 bill died after House GOP leaders refused to take up a farm bill in the last Congress.

The floor action is expected to feature amendments on the U.S. sugar program, as well as ones targeting $4 billion in food stamp cuts included in the bill, with liberals looking to reverse the cuts and conservatives looking to deepen them.

The Senate is also slated to vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to continue as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Republicans have vowed to block the nomination as they demand structural changes to the agency.

A Senate panel will chat on Thursday with President Obama's nominee to lead the Commerce Department.

Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Chicago businesswoman, faces her first hurdle toward confirmation in a nomination hearing. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will discuss a broad swath of issues, from creating jobs and increasing exports to manufacturing and weather forecasting.

Pritzker has garnered broad support from Democrats and groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.

Top regulators will also be appearing before committees this week to discuss a range of economic issues.

The Joint Economic Committee will hear testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who will give members an update on the nation’s economic picture.

Bernanke will once again face critiques from Republicans wary of the Fed’s efforts to boost the economy, which they warn are ineffective and encourage inflation.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will also be testifying on the Hill next week, as he delivers the annual report for the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

He will appear before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday, followed up by a House Financial Services Committee visit Wednesday.

While the topic at hand is the state of financial markets, Lew will likely also have to field questions about the ongoing dissection of the IRS scandal.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet Tuesday to approve a controversial outline for its 12th annual spending bill. A leaked copy of the so-called 302b allocations shows labor and health programs getting cut 18 percent below sequester levels and the State Department getting a 16 percent cut below the sequester.

In the Senate, appropriators have a number of hearings lined up to discuss spending for military, agriculture and foreign operations needs.

On Tuesday, the House Agriculture Committee will discuss the reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

On Tuesday, the Senate Budget Committee will discuss the nomination of Brian Deese to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The agency is rife with vacancies: it lacks both deputy directors, an executive associate director and an office of information and regulatory affairs head. Starting this week, the OMB won’t have a controller since Danny Werfel is set to become acting IRS Commissioner.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday will discuss bipartisan legislation that would strengthen the trade facilitation and enforcement efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The legislation reauthorizes CBP and ICE and directs them to dedicate resources to customs facilitation and trade enforcement, while establishing new tools and high-level trade positions to bolster trade efforts.

The Senate’s permanent investigatory subcommittee will delve into offshore tax shelters Tuesday. Top Apple executives will be on hand to defend their business practices, which include extensive offshore activity.

A House Financial Services subcommittee will discuss qualified mortgages and the ability of borrowers to repay their loans in a Tuesday hearing.

The new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau require lenders to compile documentation from potential homeowners to determine their ability to repay a loan.

A separate subcommittee for the panel will discuss Wednesday whether big Wall Street banks are effectively “too big to jail.”

Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that the Justice Department faces challenges in bringing charges against large banks, but later said he was misunderstood, and did not mean it is impossible to prosecute big banks.

House Republicans have circulated an outline for federal spending based on the budget from Rep. Paul Ryan.

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday moved forward with a 2014 Homeland Security funding bill, the second of 12 annual bills it needs to process before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

The Homeland Security subcommittee approved the $38.9 billion bill on a voice vote during a markup that featured no amendments. Earlier this week, the committee moved a military construction and veterans affairs bill to the full committee as well.

Both bills were written to conform to the House-passed top-line budget level of $966 billion.  This sets up a showdown since the Senate will next month start to move bills using a top-line figure that is $92 billion higher than that in the House budget, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

The Senate budget assumes that automatic spending cuts that started to go into effect March 1 are replaced by tax increases and other spending cuts, whereas the House budget does not.

Democrats said they support the homeland bill, which only cuts spending by $35 million compared to President Obama’s request, but fear the cuts coming on the other domestic discretionary bills such as those for health and education. 

Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) warned of a “dark cloud looming over the committee.”

House appropriators on Wednesday released a draft 2014 Homeland Security bill that rebuffs Obama administration cuts to bombing prevention in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. Read more...

The House Appropriations Committee moved its first spending bill Wednesday as the military construction and veterans affairs subpanel passed a $73.3 billion measure.

The appropriations bill is $1.4 billion above the funding level enacted in 2013 and $1.4 billion below President Obama’s 2014 budget request.

The measure provides $9.9 billion for military construction projects and $63.1 billion in discretionary funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs, an increase of $2.1 billion compared to last year’s levels.

Republicans argued the closures were unnecessary because of legislation passed last month that provided funding flexibility.