THE DAILY WHIP: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015

H.Res. 480 – Rule providing for consideration of both H.R. 692 – Default Prevention Act (Rep. McClintock – Ways and Means) and H.R. 10 – SOAR Reauthorization Act (Rep. Boehner – Oversight and Government Reform) (One hour of debate).  The Rules Committee has recommended one Rule which would provide for consideration of two bills.

For H.R. 692, the Rules Committee has recommended a closed Rule that provides for one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Ways and Means.  The Rule allows one motion to recommit and waives all points of order against the legislation.

For H.R. 10, the Rules Committee has recommended a structured Rule that provides for one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  The Rule allows for 2 amendments, debatable for 10 minutes equally divided between the offeror and an opponent.  The Rule allows one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, and waives all points of order against the legislation.

The Rules Committee rejected a motion by Ms. Slaughter of New York to consider H.R. 692 and H.R. 10 under open Rules.  Members are urged to VOTE NO.

H.Res. 481 – Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 1937 – National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015 (Rep. Amodei – Natural Resources) (One hour of debate).  The Rules Committee has recommended a structured Rule that provides for one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on Natural Resources.  The Rule allows for 5 amendments, debatable for 10 minutes equally divided between the offeror and an opponent.  The Rule allows one motion to recommit, with or without instructions, and waives all points of order against the legislation.

The Rules Committee rejected a motion by Ms. Slaughter of New York to consider H.R. 1937 under an open Rule.  Members are urged to VOTE NO.

H.R. 692 – Default Prevention Act (Rep. McClintock – Ways and Means) (One hour of debate).  This bill is a repeat of a measure to prioritize payments on the debt over all other obligations – in other words: pay China first – which was unanimously opposed by Democrats ahead of the Republican government shutdown and debt limit showdown in the fall of 2013. 

To do so it would require the U.S. Treasury to continue to borrow once the statutory debt limit is reached – but only to pay the principal and interest on government debt held by the public and by the Social Security trust funds, not to pay other debts or legal obligations. Under the measure, the Treasury could not borrow above the federal debt limit for any other purpose than to pay selected holders of our debt, many of whom are outside of the U.S.; all other already-incurred bills would have to be paid by general revenues on a cash-flow basis, which would force Treasury to default on many of our other obligations.

Obligations not guaranteed by the bill, and therefore in danger of not being paid on a daily basis, include pay for active-duty military, veterans benefits, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and payments to small businesses.  The bill also requires the Treasury Department, until the debt ceiling has been raised, to submit a report each week to the Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees on the status of the debt and an accounting of new debt issued under this authority.

The Treasury makes 80 to 100 million payments per month.  While it may now be possible for Treasury’s payment system to pick and choose which bills get paid and which do not on a daily basis, that position is an untested hypothetical and should remain so.  Any disruption would create uncertainty that could lead to investment dumping and panic by skittish investors that could drive up interest rates, slow growth, and potentially set off a market panic sizable enough to cause another recession.

Despite renewed warnings of economists, Republicans are once again steering our nation toward a debt ceiling crisis like we experienced in the summer of 2011 and in the fall of 2013.  In 2011, that brinksmanship saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummet nearly 2000 points; the slowest job growth in 3 years; and created waves of uncertainty around the globe about our nation’s creditworthiness, culminating in the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating for the first time in history.  This bill signals that Republicans are setting the stage for a repeat of that economic sabotage.  In 2013, Democrats unanimously opposed this legislation when Congress wasted time and taxpayer money on its consideration before pushing up against the brink of default just a few months later.  That vote can be found here.

Instead of preparing for default, which is what this Republican bill does, we should raise the debt ceiling so that we pay the bills Congress has already incurred.  Republicans should stop wasting time and taxpayer dollars on issues that are going nowhere.  Instead, the House needs to take action on pressing issues that have bipartisan support, including ensuring our nation can pay its bills, replacing sequestration, providing certainty to American businesses by reauthorizing the Export-Import bank and developing a long-term solution to create a solvent Highway Trust Fund that supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

In the Statement of Administration Policy, the President said he would veto this bill. Members are urged to VOTE NO.  

Bill Text for H.R. 692:
PDF Version

Background for H.R. 692:
House Report (HTML Version)
House Report (PDF Version)

H.R. 10 –SOAR Reauthorization Act (Rep. Boehner – Oversight and Government Reform) (One hour of debate).  H.R. 10 would reauthorize the District of Columbia private school voucher program, the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), for five years through 2021.  In 2004, Congress established OSP, the first and only federally created or funded elementary and secondary private school voucher program in the United States.  In 2011, Congress reauthorized OSP through fiscal year 2016 in the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR Act), that vote can be found here. Under the SOAR Act, D.C. households with incomes that do not exceed 185% of the poverty line may receive an annual maximum voucher payment per student of $8,000 for grades K-8 and $12,000 for grades 9-12. 

In addition, H.R. 10 makes a significant change to the evaluation of OSP’s effectiveness. The bill prohibits a control study group in making evaluations of the OSP and requires a less rigorous “quasi-experimental research design” than under the SOAR Act. Since 2004, almost $190 million has been spent on D.C. voucher schools. That is money that could have been spent on District public schools, which serve all students.

Instead of working on longer term solutions, such as reauthorizing ESEA, or working on job creation, the Majority is pushing its own education priorities on a local jurisdiction through this misguided legislation.  Members are urged to VOTE NO. 

The Rule provides for one hour of general debate and makes in order 2 amendments, debatable for 10 minutes, equally divided between the offeror and an opponent.  The amendments are:

Chaffetz Manager’s Amendment. Makes small, technical changes to the bill.
Norton Amendment. Restores the requirement that the voucher program be evaluated using the strongest possible research design, and would limit voucher students to no more than 50% of a school's total enrollment.

Bill Text for H.R. 10:
PDF Version

Background for H.R. 10:
House Report (HTML Version)
House Report (PDF Version)

Suspension (1 bill)

1. S. 1362 – A bill to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to clarify waiver authority regarding programs of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE programs) (Sen. Carper – Ways and Means)

TOMORROW’S OUTLOOK
The GOP Leadership has announced the following schedule for Thursday, October 22: The House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. The House is expected to consider H.R. 1937 – National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2015 (Rep. Amodei – Natural Resources).