THE DAILY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2017

Daily Leader

For Immediate Release:

2017-07-26T00:00:00

Contact Info:

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.	10:00 – 11:00 p.m.

H.Res. 473– Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3219 – “Make America Secure Appropriations Act, 2018” (Rep. Frelinghuysen – Appropriations) (One hour of debate). The Rules committee has recommended a structured Rule that provides for two hours of general debate, equally divided between the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations. The Rule provides for consideration of seventy-two amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes, equally controlled by the proponent and opponent of the amendment. The Rule also provides up to 20 pro forma amendments for the purpose of debate offered by the Chair and Ranking Member or their designee.

Additionally, the Rule provides the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations or his designee authority to offer amendments en bloc, consisting of amendments not previously considered. All en bloc amendments are debatable for 20 minutes equally divided between the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations or their designees.

A second Rule providing for additional amendments to H.R. 3219 is expected to be considered on the Floor tomorrow. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

Begin Consideration of H.R. 3219– “Make America Secure Appropriations Act, 2018” (Rep. Frelinghuysen – Appropriations) (Two hours of debate). H.R. 3219 packages together four of the twelve regular appropriations bills for FY 2018 into a “minibus” bill before a budget has even been considered and before any of those four bills – or the remaining eight – were considered under regular order on the Floor. They are: Defense, Legislative Branch, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Energy and Water Development.

In addition to the four regular appropriations bills, House Republicans are utilizing a legislative procedure to avoid a separate vote on an amendment to include $1.6 billion for construction of President Trump’s border wall, breaking the President’s promise to the American people that Mexico, and not taxpayers, would pay for it.

House Republicans are also breaking their own promises of following regular order and an open legislative process by acting on appropriations bills without passing a budget, by considering this package under structured rules that forego the open appropriations process, and by packaging unrelated issues into a single vehicle.

In this bill, House Republicans violate the Budget Control Act (BCA), which was agreed to on a bipartisan basis. The defense spending amount in this bill is consistent with the House Republicans’ budget plan to spend $621.5 billion on defense. Unless separate legislation is approved by both chambers to do away with the BCA’s $549 billion defense cap, all defense accounts will face a 13% across-the-board sequester cut.

Division A of H.R. 3219 contains the Defense bill, which appropriates $584.2 billion in base discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense for FY 2018, an increase of $68B over FY 2017, plus an additional $73.9 billion in discretionary budget authority designated for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). As mentioned above, this base amount would be subject to a 13% sequester cut unless separate legislation is passed to change the BCA defense cap.

Division B of H.R. 3219 contains the Legislative Branch bill, which appropriates $3.6 billion for Congressional and support agency activities, other than Senate operations. This legislation includes a provision blocking a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Members of Congress in 2018.

Division C of H.R. 3219 contains the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, which appropriates $88 billion in discretionary budget authority, an increase of $6 billion over FY 2017. About $10 billion of military construction projects is considered defense spending subject to the BCA caps, and would face a 13% sequester cut.

Division D of H.R. 3219 contains the Energy and Water bill, which appropriates $37.6 billion in discretionary budget authority for FY 2018. While it contains a relatively small aggregate cut from FY 2017, overall the non-defense portion of the bill is cut by $1.3 billion. Those cuts are mostly to several research programs for renewable energy, and it contains several poison pill anti-environment riders. $20.5 billion is considered defense spending subject to the BCA caps, and would face a 13% sequester cut.

This minibus is a cynical, partisan attempt to appear to increase defense spending while leaving investments in job creation, infrastructure, education, community development, multilateral cooperation with our global allies, and many other priorities out of the process. If the majority were serious about defense, they would fix sequestration and not include a poison pill – the Trump border wall. Members are urged to VOTE NO.

A full list of the 72 amendments made in order in the first Rule can be found HERE.

Bill Text for H.R. 3219:
PDF Version

Suspensions (4 bills)

H.R. 3210 – SECRET Act of 2017 (Rep. Knight – Oversight and Government Reform)
H.R. 2370 – Escambia County Land Conveyance Act (Rep. Gaetz – Natural Resources)
H.R. 1927 – African American Civil Rights Network Act of 2017, as amended (Rep. Clay – Natural Resources)
H.Res. 317 – Calling for the unconditional release of United States citizens and legal permanent resident aliens being held for political purposes by the Government of Iran, as amended (Rep. Ros-Lehtinen – Foreign Affairs)

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Thursday, July 27: The House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to continue consideration of H.R. 3219 – “Make America Secure Appropriations Act, 2018” (Rep. Frelinghuysen – Appropriations) (Subject to a Rule). The House may consider bills listed for consideration under suspension of the Rules.

The Daily Quote
“Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., another senior appropriator, vented his frustration at a process he described as misguided — and at more conservative colleagues who he said refuse to recognize the need for bipartisan compromise. ‘We spend too much time, energy and capital here in getting people to vote for the first launch, for the takeoff, knowing damn well a lot of those same people won’t be there for the landing. They won’t be there for the real appropriations package, the real numbers. That’s the problem.’ The proposed minibus would violate current law by exceeding a cap on defense spending for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Lifting that cap would require negotiating a bipartisan budget deal that leaders have continued to put off.” - CQ, 7/26/2017

The Daily Quote

“Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., another senior appropriator, vented his frustration at a process he described as misguided — and at more conservative colleagues who he said refuse to recognize the need for bipartisan compromise. ‘We spend too much time, energy and capital here in getting people to vote for the first launch, for the takeoff, knowing damn well a lot of those same people won’t be there for the landing. They won’t be there for the real appropriations package, the real numbers. That’s the problem.’ The proposed minibus would violate current law by exceeding a cap on defense spending for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Lifting that cap would require negotiating a bipartisan budget deal that leaders have continued to put off.”

- CQ, 7/26/2017