THE DAILY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

H.Res. 512 – Rule providing for consideration of the Senate Amendments to H.R. 22 – DRIVE Act (Transportation and Infrastructure) (One hour of debate).  The Rules Committee has recommended a structured Rule for additional amendments.  The Rule provides for consideration of 81 amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes, equally controlled by the proponent and opponent of the amendment.  The Rule provides for no further general debate and allows for the Chairman to offer amendments printed in Part A of the Rule en bloc.

The Rule makes in order several amendments related to the Export-Import Bank. Last week, the House voted overwhelmingly to support reauthorizing the Bank. Any amendment made in order under this Rule would simply be an effort to block the Export-Import Bank’s reauthorization.  Members are urged to VOTE NO.

Continue Consideration of House Amendments to Senate Amendments to H.R. 22 – DRIVE Act (Transportation and Infrastructure) (Subject to a Rule) (One Hour of Debate). This measure would replace the Highway policy in the Senate passed, DRIVE Act, with the text of H.R. 3763, as reported from the Transportation and Infrastructure committee. H.R. 3763 is a bipartisan bill that provides $325 billion to reauthorize federal-aid highway and transit programs for six years. 

Although the measure does not provide highway funding levels that are robust enough to meet our infrastructure needs, it enables state and local governments to undertake large-scale projects which were not possible under the short-term, stop gap measures previously used to fund our country’s transportation system.  The measure improves the movement of goods by establishing a nationally significant freight and highway projects program and providing $500 million in freight rail projects.  Additionally, it increases American manufacturing by strengthening Buy America requirements and raising the domestic content threshold of transit buses and rail cars from 60% to 70%.

This measure combines the Highway policy in H.R. 3763 with the offsets contained in the Senate passed transportation funding bill. The offsets include a proposal to cut the six percent dividend paid to banks on investments in the Federal Reserve to 1.5% while exempting institutions with $1 billion or less in assets and require the Secretary of Energy to draw down and sell 101 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In addition, the Senate-passed transportation funding bill includes a four year reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, identical to the legislation that passed the House last week by a vote of 313-118. 

The Rule provides for no further general debate and makes in order 81 amendments.  It also allows for the Chairman to offer amendments printed in Part A of the Rule en bloc. The complete list of amendments can be found HERE.

The following amendments have recorded votes pending as of last night:

      Hartzler Amendment
      Rooney Amendment
      Rothfus Amendment
      DeSaulnier Amendment

Bill Text for House Amendments to Senate Amendments to H.R. 22:
PDF Version

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Thursday, November 5: The House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to complete consideration of House Amendments to Senate Amendments to H.R. 22 – DRIVE Act (Transportation and Infrastructure).  The House may also consider legislation related to the National Defense Authorization Act.