Omnibus Spending Bill: At the end of October, Congress passed a last-minute “zombie budget” that provided $111 billion over the next two years in additional spending. Within this new framework, congressional leadership is attempting to bundle together 12 separate pieces of appropriations legislation into one massive omnibus spending bill in December. The year-end appropriations process is an opportunity for lawmakers to reset the policy debate and reassert their prerogatives. For instance, the bill should not allocate funding at the increased “zombie budget” levels, but spend within the original caps established by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The bill should contain a rider that defunds Planned Parenthood. Since a memo has leaked indicating that the Obama administration intends to circumvent a court injunction to continue awarding visas to illegal immigrants, the bill should contain a rider defunding executive amnesty.The bill should also block President Obama’s proposal to increase the number of refugees admitted into the United States by 45,000 over two years (with 10,000 slots reserved for Syrian refugees) because of the national security risk that it poses.
No Child Left Behind: According to reports, lawmakers have reached an agreement to reauthorize the Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law for four years. In December 2014, The Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke put forward four crucial benchmarks for any NCLB overhaul.
- It should enable states to completely opt out of programs that fall under No Child Left Behind.
- It should eliminate a number of programs and reduce federal spending.
- It should remove burdensome federal mandates from the schools.
- Finally, it should provide states the ability to allow Title I funds to follow students whose parents choose an alternative to public schooling (a policy known as Title I portability).
Those reports, confirmed by a GOP aide who participated in negotiations, suggest that this pre-conference agreement falls short on every point. According to reports, the House’s language allowing states to opt-out from testing requirements, a key conservative priority, has been removed from the bill. It is likely the grants will require detailed reporting and assurances that states will comply with federal mandates. The indexing of spending to current inflation levels indicates a lack of genuine program eliminations. Additionally, Senate Democrats have added an extensive, $250 million pre-Kindergarten program. We will continue to monitor developments, but early indications are that the bill fails to restore federalism in education and will not empower parents and students.
Highway Trust Fund: The House voted two weeks ago to send a long-term bailout of the Highway Trust Fund to conference committee with the Senate. Congress is not expected to pass this bill before the fund’s authorization lapses on November 20, and the House is expected to pass a short-term extension authorizing the fund untilDecember 4. Conservatives should remain focused on opposing the conference committee report, which could provide a $90 billion bailout to the fund and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.
Reconciliation: Last month, Heritage Action issued a key vote against H.R. 3672, a reconciliation bill intended to partially repeal Obamacare and partially defund Planned Parenthood. Heritage Action cautioned that the bill would not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, that a one-provision, full repeal of Obamacare was needed to satisfy the Byrd Rule, and that Planned Parenthood should be defunded in the appropriations process.
On Tuesday of last week, the Senate parliamentarian noted that the bill does need significant changes in order to satisfy the Byrd rule, and Senate Republicans are seeking to tighten provisions to gain the parliamentarian’s approval. Now it appears the Senate may not even consider the reconciliation measure this year. If they decide to move forward, the Senate should simply scrap the House-passed reconciliation bill and pass a one-sentence, full repeal of Obamacare as promised by congressional leadership. Senators Cruz, Rubio, and Lee are currently opposing the bill in the Senate because it does not repeal Obamacare. This article explains why this fight is so important.
Refugees: The United States currently maintains the most generous refugee program in the world. But the President has proposed expanding this program by increasing the number of refugees to 45,000 by the end of 2016. This influx of refugees presents a series of national security concerns, which the current a
