This Week on the Hill: Highway Deadline; House Targets CFPB Rules; Senate Eyes EPA Regs

With the current stop-gap authorization for highway funding expiring on Friday, it is now crunch time for the surface transportation bill. House-Senate conferees will work against a Friday deadline to try to quickly iron out differences on H.R. 22 and enact the first multi-year highway authorization law since 2012. However, it is likely that they will first act on another short-term extension to bide time until House and Senate negotiators can reconcile the differences in their versions of the bill. The transportation policy bill would renew highway and surface transportation programs for six years while paying for just three years. The House has expressed concerns over some of the pay-fors used to finance the Senate version of the bill, however. Further complicating matters is the recent passage of the Budget Agreement, effectively taking some of those offsets off the table. This will be the key area of negotiation in the conference committee and the result could be a much narrower bill that only extends funding into 2017 but requires Congress to revisit funding under a new President. If that happens, Congress will likely return its focus to repatriation and other tax measures to then fund a longer transportation measure. 

The end-of-the-year spending battles will continue to take shape, as behind-the-scenes talks on a catch-all spending bill are set to accelerate due to a December 11 deadline looming for passing the next appropriations package. Also increasing the likelihood of an omnibus package is the failure of individual appropriations bills in both chambers; a Financial Services bill never made it to the House floor because of rank-and-file opposition, and in the Senate, Democratic objection to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy riders has prevented consideration of the Transportation-HUD spending bill. With the appropriations bill route off the table, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) probably will turn to resolutions of disapproval that would overturn EPA regulations on power-plant emissions. Look for those measures, and other remaining spending bills, to be folded into the omnibus. 

This week also could see the appointment of another set of House-Senate conferees – this time to finalize legislation reauthorizing elementary and secondary education programs. The House and Senate bills (H.R. 5 and S. 1177, respectively) both set out to scale back the mandates of the George W. Bush-era “No Child Left Behind” law and give more responsibility to the states. Chairmen and ranking Democrats of the House and Senate committees that drafted the legislation released a statement last week saying that they “believe we have a path forward” toward a compromise version between the two chambers’ bills.

On the floor this week, the House could take up two bills that would relax lending rules set by the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) created under the Dodd-Frank law. One measure (H.R. 1737) would nullify CFPB guidance on indirect auto lender compliance with fair lending requirements. Other bills that could come on the floor include a measure (H.R. 1210) to provide liability protection to mortgage lenders that hold loans in their own portfolios, and a bill (H.R. 3189) to make changes to the Federal Reserve’s operations, including by requiring audits of more Fed activities and placing restrictions on its emergency lending powers. 

Legislative business in the House begins today, with votes expected on up to sixteen bills under suspension of the rules:

• H.R. 308 – The Keep the Promise Act would prohibit an American Indian casino under construction in a Phoenix suburb from opening until at least 2027.
• H.R. 1694 – The Fairness to Veterans for Infrastructure Investment Act of 2015 would provide veteran-owned businesses more opportunities to bid on contracts for federally funded transportation projects.
• H.R. 3114 – To provide funds to the Army Corps of Engineers to hire veterans and members of the Armed Forces to assist the Corps with curation and historic preservation activities, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1073 – The Critical Infrastructure Protection Act would direct the Homeland Security Department (DHS) to include the threat of electromagnetic pulse, or “EMP,” events in its national planning scenarios.
• H.R. 3144 – The Partners for Aviation Security Act would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to consult with the Aviation Security Advisory Committee before changing the list of items passengers are prohibited from carrying on flights.
• H.R. 1338 – The Dignified Interment of Our Veterans Act of 2015 would limit the maximum aggregate amount of awards and bonuses that could be paid to Senior Executive Service employees at the Veterans Affairs Department to $2 million during fiscal 2016.
• H.R. 1384 – The Honor America’s Guard-Reserve Retirees Act would grant honorary veteran status to individuals who served 20 years or more in the National Guard or Reserves who weren’t called to active duty.
• S. 599 – The Improving Access to Emergency Psychiatric Care Act would allow states participating in the Medicaid Emergency Psychiatric Demonstration project to extend their participation through Sept. 30, 2016.
• S. 799 – The Protecting Our Infants Act of 2015 would require the Health and Human Services Department to study and develop recommendations to prevent and treat neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and opioid abuse by pregnant women.
• H.R. 2583 – Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2015
• Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2262 – The SPACE Act of 2015 would give more certainty to SpaceX, Boeing Co. and other companies vying for contracts to carry cargo or U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.
• H.R. 1317 – To amend the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to specify how clearing requirements apply to certain affiliate transactions, and for other purposes
• H.R. 3032 – The Securities and Exchange Commission Reporting Modernization Act would modify the SEC’s report to Congress so that it wouldn’t need to include information on instances when it used provisions of law, such as judicial subpoenas, to access records of customers of a financial institution.
• S. 2036 – The Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2015 would suspend pay increases for the chief executive officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• H.R. 1478 – The Policyholder Protection Act of 2015 would protect insurance policyholders from having their policies put at risk by their insurance company to shore up a financially shaky affiliated depository institution.
• Concur in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 208 – The RISE After Disaster Act of 2015 would modify the Small Business Administration’s disaster assistance programs and make loans available again for businesses and residents affected by Superstorm Sandy. 

In the upper chamber, senators will start their week by considering the nomination of LaShann Moutique DeArcy Hall (Executive Calendar #141) to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. The rest of the week will see the consideration of two EPA resolutions that seek to overturn EPA rules that set emission standards for coal-fired power plants. One measure (S.J. Res. 23) sponsored by Leader McConnell, would overturn the EPA’s greenhouse-gas limit rule for new or modified power plants, while the other (S.J. Res. 24) would nullify the agency’s emission standards for existing power plants. The Senate also may take up a sanctuary cities bill this week (S. 2193) sponsored by presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, which would increase penalties for immigrants who enter the U.S. after being denied admission or deported.

 ‘This Week in Congress’ includes updates provided by the House and Senate majority leaders, as well information derived from publications including Bloomberg Government, The Hill, Politico, Roll Call, and National Journal.