THE DAILY WHIP: TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2018

Daily Leader

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HOUSE MEETS AT:	FIRST VOTE PREDICTED:	LAST VOTE PREDICTED:
10:00 a.m.: Morning Hour 12:00 p.m.: Legislative Business Fifteen “One Minutes”	1:30 – 2:30 p.m.	3:30 – 4:30 p.m.


Members are advised that the House will recess no later than 5:00 p.m., to allow for a security sweep of the House Chamber prior to the President’s State of the Union address. The House will meet again at approximately 8:30 p.m. in a joint session with the Senate for the purposes of receiving an address form the President of the United States. Members are requested to be on the Floor and seated no later than 8:20 p.m. H.Res. 714 – Rule Providing for Consideration of the House Amendment to Senate Amendments to H.R. 695 – Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2018 (Rep. Granger – Appropriations) (One hour of debate). The Rules Committee has recommended a motion by the Chair of the Appropriations Committee or his designee that the House Concur in the Senate Amendment with an amendment to H.R. 695 and waives all points of order against this motion, and provides one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations. The Rules Committee also rejected a motion by Mr. Polis of Colorado to make in order and provide the appropriate waivers to amendment #2 which reduces the total amount of defense appropriations by 1%. Members are urged to VOTE NO. House Amendment to Senate Amendments to H.R. 695 – Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2018 (Rep. Granger – Appropriations) (One hour of debate). Despite repeated promises of regular order and an open legislative process, House Republicans are bringing this funding bill to the Floor without allowing any amendments, almost five months into the fiscal year. This bill contains $584 billion in base discretionary appropriations for the Department of Defense, and $75 billion in additional discretionary appropriations designated for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and another $5 billion designated as emergency spending. The bill is consistent with the House Republicans’ budget plan to unilaterally bust through the Budget Control Act (BCA) spending cap for defense, adding $73 billion more than the $549 billion allowed under the current BCA defense cap. For months, Democrats have sought an agreement on the discretionary spending caps that provides parity for both defense and non-defense appropriations bills. Rather than negotiate a cap agreement that would pave the way for a defense appropriations bill to become law, they are placing a bill on the floor that proposes to exempt itself from the BCA defense cap’s sequestration. This bill is the third example of Republicans rejecting bipartisan compromise and instead going it alone. The House voted on nearly identical text as part of larger, partisan appropriations packages in July (that vote can be found here) and September (that vote can be found here). Both times the bills were nearly unanimously opposed by Democrats. The only changes are: (1) adding $1.184 billion to the OCO account for an additional 3,500 troops in Afghanistan and (2) eliminating the sequester for the defense BCA cap in FY 2018, which this bill would otherwise trigger, while keeping in place sequestration for the non-defense BCA cap. Now almost a third of the way through the fiscal year, House Republicans are bringing this bill to the Floor knowing it has no chance of becoming law. Despite controlling the House, Senate, and the White House, Republicans have shown that they are incapable of passing a long-term funding bill. After a brief Trump shutdown, Republicans passed their fourth short-term continuing resolution. Because Republicans refuse to work with Democrats and compromise on how to provide relief from the BCA’s sequester-level discretionary spending caps for both defense and non-defense appropriations, they are lurching from CR to CR – degrading the readiness of our military and preventing government agencies from properly serving the American people. It is long past time for Republicans to reach agreement with Democrats and get our work done. Members are urged to VOTE NO. Postponed Suspension (1 bill) H.R. 4292** – Financial Institution Living Will Improvement Act of 2017 (Rep. Zeldin – Financial Services)

THE DAILY QUOTE
“[President Trump’s] policy positions are often only temporary notions, his calls for unity and bipartisan cooperation can be contradicted in the same day, and his ideological vision is often undermined by the laws that he ultimately signs. The facts he uses to defend his positions also regularly prove to be false. And none of this lends itself to the traditional role of the State of the Union, which voters, legislators and foreign governments look to as a guide to the nation’s political agenda.” - Washington Post, 1/30/2018

THE DAILY QUOTE

“[President Trump’s] policy positions are often only temporary notions, his calls for unity and bipartisan cooperation can be contradicted in the same day, and his ideological vision is often undermined by the laws that he ultimately signs. The facts he uses to defend his positions also regularly prove to be false. And none of this lends itself to the traditional role of the State of the Union, which voters, legislators and foreign governments look to as a guide to the nation’s political agenda.”

- Washington Post, 1/30/2018