April 24, 2006

 

 
The House and Senate return this week from their two-week spring recess.
 
 
ON THE HILL;SHORT TERM OUTLOOK
 
The Senate returns today, April 24; the House will reconvene tomorrow.  Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) announced that the Senate will begin consideration of the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 4939.  Next week, in recognition of "Health Week," the chamber will consider measures to cap medical liability lawsuits (S. 4) and assist small businesses in purchasing health insurance (S.1955).    Immigration reform legislation could be considered sometime in late May.  Senator Frist also intends to have the chamber consider a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage and another to bar the desecration of the American flag.  In late June, a bill (H.R. 8) that would extend a temporary repeal of the estate tax could be considered. 
 
The House returns tomorrow to consider an authorization bill (H.R. 5020) for intelligence operations as well as a lobbying reform measure (H.R. 4975).  Next week, they will return to the FY 2007 budget resolution.  The House failed to pass their $2.8 trillion budget blueprint before adjourning for the spring recess.  House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo) claims that the GOP will eventually adopt a resolution despite recent disagreement between appropriators, conservatives, and moderates.

House leaders have also scheduled time in May for floor consideration of telecommunications franchise reform legislation.  The chamber will then return to defense authorization, energy, and emergency management legislation.  In June, several health care bills will be considered. 

Congress also needs to address potential conference reports on the budget resolution and tax reconciliation. 

ON THE HILL (APRIL 24 - 28)

SENATE. This week, the chamber will consider its $106.5 billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill providing $72.4 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as $27 billion dedicated to hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast.  The House-passed version totals $91.9 billion, including $67 billion for military operations, $4.3 billion for State Department programs to assist foreign allies in fighting terrorism, and $19.2 billion for hurricane relief.  President Bush's request was for $92.2 billion.  Before adjourning for the spring recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee added close to $14 billion to the measure by inserting numerous items, including the following:

  • $2.3 billion for avian flu preparedness;
  • $648 million for port security;
  • $600 million for highway repairs;
  • $4 billion in assistance to farmers and ranchers; and
  • $1 billion for fisheries projects along the Gulf Coast.

An amendment providing $350 million for the U.S. Department of Education to reimburse states for educating displaced students is also included in the supplemental.  

HOUSE.  House leaders expect to continue negotiations on the FY 2007 budget resolution, with floor consideration scheduled tentatively for next week. Contentious issues including efforts to raise the overall discretionary spending level and a series of budget process reforms still remain.   Congress has missed its April 15 statutory deadline to pass a budget resolution.  If a budget resolution is not passed, the House could pass a "deeming resolution" setting the discretionary cap at $873 billion.  Even if a discretionary level is not set, House appropriators could move forward and allocate among the 11 subcommittees.  In the Senate however, the lack of a final budget resolution means the FY 2006 budget resolution would still be applicable, setting an $866 billion discretionary cap.

 

 

IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on economic impacts of immigration this tomorrow, Tuesday, April 25.  The Committee is not expected to mark up any new legislation or reconsider the draft bill it approved last month. The panel spent five days marking up its original draft measure, which served as a substitute amendment to immigration legislation (S 2454) that the Senate spent two weeks debating in late March and early April.

Disagreements concerning the status of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants continue to divide the Senate. Senators' Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) reached a compromise that would create a guest worker program as well as a path to citizenship for the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants who have been in the United States more than five years. Republican and Democratic supporters of the Hagel-Martinez proposal are urging the Senate to return to immigration legislation the week of May 8.

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) requested that the Senate return to the immigration debate this week after it finishes with the emergency supplemental appropriations bill While Majority Leader Bill Frist has indicated he wanted the Senate to return to the issue, there is no set timetable for the Senate to reconsider the measure.

 

 

FUTURE ROLES OF THE NATIONAL GUARD & RESERVES

The second in a series of public hearings on the current and future roles of the National Guard and reserves will be held in Washington, D.C., on May 3 & 4.  The hearings are being conducted by the independent Commission on the National Guard and reserves, which is charged by Congress to recommend any changes that need to be made in laws and policies under which the National Guard and reserves operate.

The May hearings will focus on the appropriate roles of the National Guard and reserves in homeland security, homeland defense, and disaster response.  The hearings will be held in the National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center, 429, L'Enfant Plaza, SW.  Invited to testify are top federal homeland security officials and military commanders with responsibility for homeland security, and homeland security experts.  For more information, please visit the Commission's Web site - www.cngr.gov

 

NEVADA'S EMPLOYMENT DATA STILL SHOWS STRONG ECONOMY

Nevada's unemployment rate continued to hold steady at a low 3.8 percent in March. The state added 14,200 jobs over the month, bringing employment gains to 73,400 over the past year.  Nevada's job growth rate of 6.1 percent is nearly four times the national average of 1.6 percent, and the state's unemployment rate remains nearly a full percentage point below the U.S. rate of 4.7 percent.