THE DAILY WHIP: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015

H.Res. 483 – Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3762 – Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 (Rep. Price (GA) – Budget) (One hour of debate).  The Rules Committee has recommended a Closed Rule that provides for two hours of general debate equally divided and controlled by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Budget.  The Rule allows one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, and waives all points of order against the legislation.

The Rule also Waives clause 6(a) of rule XIII, the requirement of a two-thirds vote to consider a rule on the same day it is reported from the Rules Committee, against any resolution reported from the Rules Committee through the legislative day of October 23, 2015.  Lastly, the Rule also allows for Suspension Authority on Thursday, October 22, 2015 and Friday, October 23, 2015.

The Rules Committee rejected a motion by Ms. Slaughter of New York to add an amendment which calls for bipartisan, bicameral negotiations to raise the Budget Control Act’s discretionary spending caps and establish appropriate offsets to allow appropriations action to proceed and to avoid a government shutdown.  If the negotiations do not lead to a deal enacted by November 16, 2015, the caps for 2016 are automatically raised to the level in the president’s budget, eliminating the sequester for non-defense discretionary programs and providing the same amount of sequester relief for defense programs. 

The Rules Committee also rejected a motion by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts to consider H.R. 3762 under an open Rule.  Members are urged to VOTE NO.

H.R. 1937 – National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015 (Rep. Amodei – Natural Resources) (One hour of debate).  The bill would reduce or eliminate environmental reviews, and give mining companies control over the timing of permitting decisions, for virtually all types of mining operations on federal public land, not just those involving strategic or critical minerals.  It does this by defining “strategic and critical” minerals so broadly that they would include everything from minerals like gold, silver, copper and uranium (which are critical to defense, energy infrastructure & production, and manufacturing) to plentiful materials such as sand, clay, gravel and potentially even coal.  Further, the bill deems all mines to be “infrastructure projects” in order to put them in line with an Executive Order aimed at reducing permitting time for surface transportation, aviation, pipelines and other infrastructure projects that have lesser environmental effects than mining. Lastly, it requires the Interior Department to waive compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) if the federal or state permitting process is deemed “adequate” and requires federal agencies to enter into agreements with mining companies to set time limits for each part of the permit review process and limit total review time to 30 months.

In addition to reducing or eliminating environmental reviews in order to receive mining permits, the bill would also limit the judicial review of mine permits, barring any civil action not filed within 60 days after a final federal agency action.

The Rule provides for one hour of general debate and makes in order 5 amendments, debatable for 10 minutes, equally divided between the offeror and an opponent.  The amendments are:

Lowenthal Amendment. Clarifies that the definition of "Strategic and Critical Minerals" only includes the minerals identified by the National Research Council (NRC) as strategic and critical minerals (and any additional minerals added by the Secretary that meet the NRC's criteria), and does not include sand, gravel or clay.
Dingell Amendment. Ensures that mining permits are fully reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Cartwright Amendment. Strikes sections of the bill that would limit judicial review of agency actions and prevent the awarding of attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
Pearce Amendment. Exempts potash from the definition of "Strategic and Critical Minerals" to avoid potential conflicts with oil and gas drilling in southeastern New Mexico.
Hastings (FL) Amendment. Requires demonstration for proposed projects that domestic capacity to produce strategic and critical minerals is less that 80 percent of domestic requirements and requires publication of intent to transport or sell strategic and critical mineral intermediate and final products outside of the United States unless the domestic capacity exceeds 80 percent.

Bill Text for H.R. 1937:
PDF Version

Background for H.R. 1937:
House Report (HTML Version)
House Report (PDF Version)

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Friday, October 23: The House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to complete consideration of H.R. 3762 – Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 (Rep. Price (GA) – Budget).  Members are advised that additional legislative items are possible.