This Week on the Hill

Congress returns from a two-week spring recess this week  to begin conference negotiations on the FY 2006 budget resolution. The Senate may consider a bill to reauthorize State Department and foreign affairs programs The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark-up the FY 2005 war supplemental while the  House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is expected to mark-up the energy bill.  The House is also scheduled to debate bankruptcy reform legislation sometime this week.

With regards to budget negotiations, conferees will most likely meet this week on the FY 2006 budget resolution.  Both the House and Senate passed different versions before the recess and conference negotiations are expected to be contentious.  Highlights of the House passed version (H. Con. Res 95) include $843 billion in discretionary funding with $68.6 billion in entitlement cuts and contains reconciliation instructions to the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $20 billion in savings over 5 years under its jurisdiction, with Medicaid the likely target for around $15 billion.  The Senate passed version (S. Con. Res 18) contains $848.8 billion in discretionary spending ($5.4 billion was added on the floor for education programs).  The chamber struck from its version reconciliation instructions to the Senate Finance Committee to cut $15 billion from programs under its jurisdiction, $14 billion of which would likely have come from the Medicaid program, thereby reducing mandatory spending cuts to $17 billion from the $32 billion.  On the tax side, the House version includes a $45 billion tax reconciliation package.  The Senate voted on a $129 billion tax package, from $70 billion.  The current schedule for the reconciliation packages calls for the House to address taxes in June and spending in September.  The Senate plans to address spending in June and taxes sometime in September. 

An FY 2005 supplemental spending measure (H.R. 1268) is scheduled to be marked up in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, April 6.    The measure would fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign policy priorities.  Floor action on the measure is anticipated for next week.  The Senate version is expected to be a "clean" bill.  

The energy bill will be marked up in the House Energy and Commerce Committee beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5 (opening statements).  Two days of additional markup are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.  The Committee's proposal (according to a discussion draft)  is similar to the conference bill that stalled in the previous Congress, although this year's bill is likely to be less generous with regards to incentives and tax credits.  During the markup, Rep. Rick Boucher, ranking member of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, is expected to offer an amendment striking the language in the bill that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to preempt state law citing interstate transmission lines.

The House is also slated to consider the Senate passed Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (S.256).

Yucca Mountain Hearing

On Tuesday, April 5, the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, chaired by Congressman Jon Porter will hold a hearing on allegations that federal scientists falsified data when establishing the safety of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.  On March 16, 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Federal employees of the U.S.  Geological Survey (USGS) of the Department of Interior (DOI) may have falsified data used in scientific studies at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.  DOE made this discovery from emails exchanged by employees with the USGS dating back to 1998, which discuss fabricated results from water and climate studies at Yucca Mountain.  On Friday, April 1, a portion of the emails were released.  For more information on the documents and tomorrow's hearing,  please visit the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization of the House Committee on Government Reform website at: http://reform.house.gov/FWAO/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=7447