Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e8TImn904867; Fri, 29 Sep 2000 14:48:49 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 14:48:49 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <NDBBIIAMELHODBHLMPKIGEBCCDAA.nsledd@famlit.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Nancy Sledd" <nsledd@famlit.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:3173] Cross post from the NLA list: Congressional Update -- Appropriations X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 9560 Lines: 165 As many of you know, the regular session of the 106th Congress was scheduled to end tomorrow (9/30/00), but Congress has approved a continuing resolution that will keep the federal government operating until next Friday (10/6/00). This means that Congress has just five working days to complete 11 spending bills, including the bill that funds major education, labor, and health and human services programs. I have attached a few articles from National Journal's Congress Daily that detail the work yet to be completed and the obstacles that must be navigated. Unfortunately, they do not mention the Labor-HHS-ED spending bill. My understanding is that House and Senate negotiators are close to an agreement on the education and health/human services portions, but there is some hang-up relating to the labor items. As soon as negotiators make the conference report available I will share the information with you. Next week will be a busy one for Members of Congress as they attempt to complete their legislative business. There is already a rumor that they will need to approve another continuing resolution that will keep them working through the second week in October. I will keep you posted on their progress and any major news relating to adult education and literacy. Christy Gullion Senior Policy Analyst National Institute for Literacy 1775 I Street NW, Suite 730 Washington, DC 20006 202-233-2033 (voice) 202-233-2050 (fax) cgullion@nifl.gov www.nifl.gov _____________________________- FY2000 Ends With 11 Spending Bills Unfinished... September 28, 2000 On the last legislative day before FY2001 begins Sunday, Congress closed up shop tonight for a brief Rosh Hashanah recess without passing a single appropriations conference report since returning from the August recess. Senate leaders set a vote on the Energy and Water appropriations bill for Monday afternoon. The measure passed the House, 301-118, earlier in the day. The Senate this afternoon adopted the continuing resolution passed by the House Tuesday, agreeing with a 96-0 vote to fund through next Friday those government agencies whose FY2001 budgets have not been enacted. President Clinton today indicated he would sign the CR. So far this year, Congress has sent only two completed FY2001 spending bills to the president for his signature, the Defense and Military Construction measures. House and Senate Republican leaders had laid out an ambitious schedule for themselves this week that called for clearing conference reports on the Energy and Water bill, the Interior bill, and a combined Transportation/Agriculture spending package, but came up short. Despite numerous meetings this week between conferees and administration officials on the Interior bill, no final agreement had been reached at presstime on the sensitive issue of language and funding for President Clinton's Lands Legacy initiative. The Transportation/Agriculture package was even further behind the bicameral leadership's schedule, after a planned Transportation conference committee this afternoon never took place. More significantly, key farm state senators of both parties were withholding comment on leadership-negotiated deals on the two main sticking points in the Agriculture bill - lifting the ban on food and medicine exports to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Sudan, and allowing the reimportation of FDA-approved prescription drugs. However, the White House is in the process of analyzing a reimportation proposal from the GOP leadership contained in the Agriculture appropriations bill. Sources close to the deal said language in the Agriculture spending bill will contain a three-year sunset provision and include $23 million in new money for FDA enforcement in the first year. The leadership also has added provisions limiting the countries from which drug products can be imported and changes the FDA's authority, which an administration source said "needs to be discussed." The administration also has questions regarding how the provision would affect public health and trade laws, the source said. Also, although authorizers would like it to come out, the amendment added on the Senate floor by Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is likely to stay in, sources said. The Cochran amendment would require HHS to certify that the reimported drugs are as safe and effective as currently available drugs. - By Lisa Caruso, April Fulton and Charlie Mitchell OUTLOOK - Hill Schedule Yet To Gel; Second CR Looms As Possibility September 28, 2000 The House and Senate schedules for next week remain fluid, with leaders hoping to complete action on as many FY2001 appropriations conference reports as possible before the expiration of a continuing resolution next Friday, Oct. 6. The House Monday is expected to take up the Agriculture and Transportation appropriations conference reports, although it was undetermined at presstime whether they would move as separate bills or as a combined measure. The House also will take up the Interior appropriations bill if White House and congressional negotiators can settle their final differences this afternoon. In addition, the House is scheduled to take up the defense authorization conference report, and may consider a bill on sex trafficking. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Lott said the Senate would take up appropriations conference reports whenever they become available. The Senate could take up the House-passed Energy and Water appropriations conference report as early as today; otherwise, it could come up Monday. Additionally, there are several remaining bills that either could be attached to a conference report, or could come up under unanimous consent. The spokesman mentioned a minimum wage/small business tax cut package, Foreign Sales Corporations tax legislation, the Violence Against Women Act and bankruptcy reform. The defense authorization conference report could also come up in the Senate. Senate Majority Whip Nickles said Wednesday that he did not expect Congress to complete all of its work by the Oct. 6 adjournment target. If that is the case, both chambers must take up additional CRs next week. Republican leaders have said they will move a one-week CR, and Democrats have said President Clinton will insist on only short-term CRs. - by Geoff Earle OUTLOOK - Nickles Predicts Second CR, Increase In Minimum Wage September 27, 2000 Senate Majority Whip Nickles today conceded Congress would probably not be able to complete its business by Oct. 6 - when the continuing resolution moving through the Senate is do to expire - but expressed hope that Congress could finish up soon. "At the end of next week, we'll probably pass another [continuing resolution] for another week," Nickles told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce session. He acknowledged the House has done a better job than the Senate of moving its FY2001 spending bills, something he attributed to a lack of cooperation from Senate Democrats. Meanwhile, Nickles, a key negotiator on stalled managed care legislation, said the bill is "alive and well," but also said he would work energetically to make sure Congress does not pass a bill that would increase costs or increase the ranks of the uninsured. "We'd like to complete this year," he said. "We're certainly willing to negotiate." Nickles repeated his opposition to the managed care bill that passed the House by saying, "We will not pass Norwood-Dingell, period." Nickles predicted, "We're still probably going to pass a minimum wage bill" - a top priority for Democrats on which White House officials have been negotiating with House Speaker Hastert. "Let me tell you, it will have tax cuts, and not the $20 billion that [Senate Minority Leader] Daschle is talking about," Nickles said. He reaffirmed his support for $76 billion in small business tax relief - the amount proposed by Hastert in a recent overture. Daschle wrote Hastert Tuesday laying out his ongoing concerns about GOP conditions on a minimum wage hike. Daschle cited changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act regarding overtime pay, changes in guidelines in the federal tip credit, protections for workers on the Northern Mariana Islands, and changes in unemployment insurance reform that would accompany repeal of the 0.2 percent FUTA surtax as the remaining obstacles to agreement. On easing sanctions on food and medicine exports to Cuba, the subject of a bitter dispute on the Agriculture appropriations conference report, Nickles predicted the enactment of compromise language worked out by Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., earlier this year. On tax cuts, Nickles said, "We don't have time to run the reconciliation clock" and bring up a pension bill passed out of the Finance Committee. He then listed the telephone excise tax repeal, community renewal, and Foreign Sales Corporations tax legislation, and said, "Those will be in some kind of mix before we get out of town." Nickles said he was "confident" that bankruptcy reform legislation would be completed, but would not say what vehicle it might move on. Nickles congratulated the Senate for its efforts to get the bill extending permanent normal trade relations status to China passed, but urged the Chamber of Commerce to increase its election efforts. "The business community . better get engaged. You don't want to wake up after the election . and say I didn't see this coming," he said. "The intensity on the other side by the special interest groups is greater, and it shouldn't be." - by Geoff Earle
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