July 5, 2004

 
This Week on the Hill -- July 6-9
 
Congress returns today, Tuesday, July 6,  from its Independence Day recess and has only 14 legislative days until it adjourns for a summer recess. Top priority issues remaining to be resolved include completion of the FY 2005 appropriations cycle, an FY 2005 budget resolution, a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, and the export tax bill. 
 
The House continues to focus on FY 2005 appropriations bills.  Floor action is scheduled later this week on the Commerce/Justice/State spending bill as well as the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act.  In addition, numerous appropriations bills are also expected to be addressed at both the House and Senate committee and subcommittee levels.  An omnibus spending package still remains the most likely vehicle for appropriations bills, although the House is moving ahead with individual consideration of all 13 spending bills. 
 
The Senate is moving at a slower pace and has only passed the defense appropriations bill.  The Appropriations Committee has approved the homeland security measure.  The Senate will continue this week with debate on class action legislation (S. 2602), which would overhaul the civil justice system by expanding federal court jurisdiction over class actions filed in state court.  Numerous amendments are expected and debate on the measure will likely take-up the week.
 
 
Transportation Bill
 
Ongoing negotiations on the surface transportation reauthorization bill (H.R. 3550) continue but so far only "lower tier" provisions have been addressed.  Conferees will meet again on Wednesday, July 7, at 2:00 p.m., in G-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building (public meeting).  Key issues, such as overall funding of the bill are expected to be addressed.  Over the past few weeks, House and Senate offers to begin negotiations at respective funding levels have been rejected.  The House bill calls for $284 billion, the Senate bill allocates $318 billion, and the Administration has proposed $256 billion.  The temporary extension expires on July 31.
 
 
Defense Spending Bill Addresses Appropriations Flaw
 
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens last week quietly added a fix to the Department of Defense appropriations bill which would ensure that additional obligation authority is provided for the earmarks included in the FY 2004 transportation spending bill (Sec. 115) without affecting other states.
 
The Senate approved by unanimous consent a provision that would provide "such sums as necessary" to ensure that states which received earmarks for projects, also got the necessary obligation authority, above and beyond their regular apportionment.  Observers project that the cost may be as much as an additional $313 million in obligation authority.  The fix was necessary because of a flaw in the FY 2004 DOT appropriations bill, which approved projects for states, but not obligation authority.  As a result, states would have had to take money from their regular allocations to do the projects.  The only other alternative would have been for the FHA to recalculate the distribution of obligation authority to all the states, reducing obligations for some 27 states to increase it for the states with earmarks.  That solution was unacceptable to Congressional members whose states stood to lose funds, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. 

The remedy, approved by the Senate would provide the additional obligations authority to hold all states harmless.  Although the provision is included in the Senate's version of the DOD spending bill, it was not included in the House bill.  The issue must now win approval by the House and Senate conference committee to be included in the conference report.
 
*info taken from the AASHTO Journal Weekly Transportation Report
 
 
Yucca Mountain
 
Senate energy appropriators could take up the contentious Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository funding issue as early as this week if lawmakers move to mark up the FY 2005 Energy and Water Development appropriations bill. 
 
The clock is ticking on the Yucca Mountain project because the FY 2005 Energy and Water spending bill passed the House on June 25 and includes only $131 million for the project, an amount the Bush administration says could virtually shut down the project by forcing layoffs of 70 percent of site personnel by the end of this month. 
 
 
VOIP
 
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet has scheduled a Wednesday, July 7, hearing on the VOIP Regulatory Freedom Act of 2004 (H.R. 4129).  On July 1, the executive directors of NGA, the Council of State Governments, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the National Association of Counties, wrote a letter to committee Chairman Joe Barton and ranking member John Dingell urging them not to take action on the legislation this year since H.R. 4129 is a premature response to an emerging technology that fails to adequately address the wide variety of complex issues facing the communications and Internet industries as a whole.
 

Grants Available to Reduce Health Disparities in Medicaid

The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is accepting applications from Medicaid health plans for a $10,000 award to participate in a two year technical assistance project to develop and evaluate innovative strategies to reduce health disparities for minority populations.  CHCS will work with Medicaid health plans, state primary care case management programs, and state Medicaid agencies using existing best practices research to help them identify and address these disparities.  They will also train agencies on data mining techniques and contracting incentives to support and evaluate quality improvement initiatives.

The two year initiative will end with a CHCS Quality Summit in early 2006.  Successful applications will include a logical plan for identifying and reducing one or two health disparities in chronic disease areas among racial/ethnic populations; Sufficient data infrastructure to identify and stratify the target population; and Explicit support from its network providers and the state Medicaid agency.

CHCS is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation and it promotes high quality health care services for low-income populations and people with chronic illness and disabilities through technical assistance, training, and targeted grant making.  Applications and instruction for these grants are available online at the CHCS website: http://www.chcs.org/info-url3964/info-url_list.htm?cat_id=367

 

Nevada Commission on Tourism Awards Nevada's Rural Communities

The Nevada Commission on Tourism (NCOT) has approved $1 million in grants to help rural communities promote attractions, adventures, and special events that draw visitors and feed local economies.  The Rural Tourism Grants make it possible for rural communities with limited resources to purchase advertising and promotional materials such as maps and brochures, create videos and DVDs, maintain Web sites, obtain professional services to develop visitor attractions, participate in travel industry trade shows and engage in other tourism-building activities. 

The grants have assisted in promoting hundreds of attractions, events, and activities since the program began in 1984.  Grants are awarded twice annually for a total of $1.5 million and each grant requires a local match in cash, labor, or materials.  The next awarding will $500,000 in December. 

For more information and the full press release (including quotes)  please visit www.travelnevada.com

*(Information taken from NCOT press release)

 

 

Key Committee Meetings

Appropriations

  • The Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a Wednesday, July 7, markup at 2:00 p.m. in 192 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
  • The Senate Labor/Health and Human Services/Education Subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a Thursday, July 8, markup at 9:30 a.m. in 192 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
  • The Senate Transportation-Treasury Subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a Thursday, July 8, markup at 10:00 a.m. in 116 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
  • The Senate Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a Thursday, July 8, markup at 2:00 p.m. in 138 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
  • The House Labor/Health and Human Services/Education Subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a Thursday, July 8, markup (time TBA) in 2358 Rayburn House Office Building.

Electronic Voting. The House Administration Committee has scheduled a Wednesday, July 7, hearing at 11:00 a.m. in 1310 Longworth House Office Building on the security of electronic voting systems.

Firefighter Assistance. The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a Thursday, July 8, hearing on legislation (S. 2411) to provide financial assistance to firefighters.

Juvenile Justice. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a Wednesday, July 7, hearing at 10:00 a.m. in 342 Dirksen Senate Office Building on Juvenile Detention Centers.

VOIP. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 7, at 10:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building on Voice over Internet Protocol services.