The Week in Review
Last week witnessed a flurry of transportation action, as the Senate worked through the weekend in hopes of advancing their version of highway funding legislation. The Senate’s six-year measure would pay for new highway funding for three years by using a variety of offsets on top of the current federal gas tax, which on its own is not generating enough revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent. The Senate bill would generate $9 billion by selling crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, $16 billion by cutting the dividend rate paid by the Federal Reserve, and $4 billion by indexing customs fees to inflation. In order to placate Democrats, mass transit funding has been expanded in the bill and an offset taking away Social Security benefits for those with a felony warrant was removed. Even with all the changes, the Senate will eventually need to come up with another package of offsets to pay for the bill’s final three years.
Month: July 2015
Financial Services Report
Looking Ahead
Near Term
The House Financial Services Committee continues its nostalgic review of Dodd-Frank with a hearing on Tuesday. Later that afternoon the Committee will mark-up the following bills:
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
Competing approaches to resolving the highway funding challenge emerged in Congress last week, with the House and Senate taking different approaches to the issue. The House passed its version (H.R. 3038) in a 312-119 vote, providing $8 billion in funding for the Highway Trust Fund, which would allow it to continue operating through the end of 2015. Meanwhile, the Senate is aiming to pass a longer-term deal that would give $275 billion in highway funding over a period of six years. Both plans face significant hurdles; the House version includes unrelated offsets in tax adjustments drawing the criticism of conservatives and the Senate bill has been linked with the ongoing controversy over the Export-Import Bank.
Financial Services Report
Our Take
Tuesday marks the 5th Anniversary of Dodd-Frank and it seems like little has changed, as Republicans continue to attack the law while Democrats defend it. With numerous event this week to commemorate the “wood anniversary” of financial reform it seemed appropriate to once again go into the time machine to dig up what we were writing about Dodd-Frank five year ago. The following is from the July 26, 2010 newsletter, and like so many analyses of the law’s impact, depending on which side of the aisle you sit on you may think it prescient or comical.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
Upon reconvening on Tuesday, both houses of Congress set to work on education bills that aim to provide a major update to the “No Child Left Behind” initiative that was a cornerstone of President George W. Bush’s domestic policy. The House version (H.R. 5) includes language that gives states much more flexibility in setting standards for teacher accountability, but per the bill’s language, those standards must include standardized test scores. While some Republicans rebelled against the bill, claiming that it did not allocate enough authority to the states, the measure passed on Wednesday by a narrow margin, 218-213. The Senate’s version (S. 1177) remains unfinished business and will be further debated this week.
Financial Services Report
This week marks the 5th Anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank. It also means we’ve been writing this newsletter for nearly six years. With all the nostalgia surrounding the 5th anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank we thought it might be fun to take a look back at what was on our mind what we were saying about Dodd-Frank Five years ago.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
The House and Senate were out last week for the Independence Day recess. Both chambers plan to reconvene tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7.