Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Here’s a followup from last week’s call. Congress is back in D.C. this week for a few days of work before taking another break next week for Thanksgiving. This includes both Senators and Representatives from the 115th Congress, plus the 92+ Senators-elect and Representatives-elect for the 116th Congress. Members of the first group will, among other things, be working on how to pass the seven remaining appropriations bills for FY 2019. There are only about a dozen legislative days between now and December 7th, when the current extension of FY 2018 government funding for those bills expires, so I think it’s likely that there will be at least one more continuing resolution (CR) needed to extend the deadline to pass at least some of these bills. Some of them won’t be smooth sailing — I think Homeland Security may be a contentious one in particular. It’s even possible that they might pass a CR that delays final decisions until the newly elected Members and Senators are sworn in and the Democrats are in control of the House. The 116th Congress Fun fact: under the Constitution, a new Congress begins at 12pm ET on January 3rd of every other year — although Congress sometimes moves the date if it falls on a weekend. January 3rd, 2019 is a Thursday, so my assumption is that the 115th Congress will end at 11:59 am ET that day. At that time, any legislation introduced during the 115th Congress, but not enacted, will die. It could be reintroduced in the 116th Congress, but the legislative process begins all over again. So, for example, something like the Republican Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, (aka the Prosper Act) which passed the House, would have to be reintroduced and passed again. Which it won’t, since now the Democrats will be in charge. House Leadership Elections Because party control will switch to the Democrats in the House in the 1165th Congress, the leadership of all committees and subcommittees in the House will change. Someone asked about the timing of this on our call last week, and it has to do with why the members of Congress for the 116th Congress are here in town now. This group, plus those who will be returning, are beginning the process of selecting their leaders, as leadership elections take place ahead of the official start of the next Congress. Then, in January, chairs are appointed by whoever becomes speaker to the “standing committees,” like the Education and the Workforce Committee. House Democrats will hold their leadership elections on November 28th, while House Republicans reportedly will hold their elections this week. Here is a list of the members who have announced their candidacy for various leadership positions: House Democratic Leadership Speaker — Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Still a slight chance a challenger may emerge, although important to note that she the only person to have officially announced for the job. But there is some uncertainty as to whether she has the votes yet. See: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/416529-new-hurdle-arises-to-pelosis-march-to-speakership <https://thehill.com/homenews/house/416529-new-hurdle-arises-to-pelosis-march-to-speakership>. Majority Leader — Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Majority Whip – Reps. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) Assistant Democratic Leader – Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM). Note that this is a newish position Pelosi created for Clyburn not that long ago. I’ve never really understood exactly what the responsibilities of the job are. Caucus Chair – Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Jeffries is said to be the likely winner. Jeffries chaired the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee ahead of the midterm elections and, interestingly, has at times been considered a potential challenger to Pelosi. Caucus Vice Chair – Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA). House Republican leadership Minority Leader — Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is being challenged by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). (See: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/07/jordan-challenge-mccarthy-minority-leader-971042 <https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/07/jordan-challenge-mccarthy-minority-leader-971042>) Minority Whip — Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). Conference Chair — Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). Current Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) wants to leave this position to seek a ranking member position on the Energy and Commerce Committee instead. Conference Vice Chair — Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC). Conference Secretary — Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO). Senate Leadership Significant changes regarding the Senate agenda are not expected, and the Senate’s leadership and the leaders of standing committees like the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee are likely to remain the same. As I mentioned last week, Sen. Alexander will be term-limited out of his chairmanship after this Congress. Standing Committees and Committee Chairs in the House and Other Important Things to Remember About the New Congress We won’t know until the start of the 116th Congress who is going to be appointed to what each standing committee in the House. Some familiar faces will remain on each committee, but usually there is some moving around. And since the Democrats are taking over, they get more committee seats, so they’ll be adding more Democrats to each panel. Expectations are that current ranking Democratic members of each committee will take on the role of chair. So, as we discussed last week, we can assume that House Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) will become chair of that committee in January. In a recent Politico interview, Rep. Scott said that his priorities are to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (with the Democratic version — the Aim Higher Act — as a starting point); H.R.2475, the Rebuild America's Schools Act (which he authored); and H.R.6964, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act; and oversight of ESSA implementation. Meanwhile, Nita Lowey (D-NY), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member and presumptive chair of that committee next year, has called for raising or eliminating the Budget Control Act (BCA) spending caps (see below). In terms of education funding priorities, she has mentioned increasing the funding for early childhood education programs. Presumably Rep. Rosa DeLauro, current Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies will take over as chair. CEF letter to OMB Director Mulvaney on FY 2020 Budget Last week your CEF President signed off on a letter <https://cef.org/advocacy/letters-to-congress/> to OMB Director Mulvaney urging that the President's fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget increases investments in education and raises the Budget Control Act (BCA) spending cap on non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding. Right now, under existing law, there is a required cut of $55 billion from NDD funding for FY 2020. (Meanwhile, you’ll recall that the President has instructed all agencies to cut their budgets by at least 5% in the Administration's FY 20202 budget request, which is due to due to Congress by February 5th, 2019.) The caps have been raised two-years-at-a-time since the BCA was enacted. The most recent budget deal, made earlier this year, waived them for FY2018 and FY2019, but they go back into effect for FY2020 and beyond. As I mentioned yesterday, Democrats like Rep. Lowey will call for raising or eliminating the caps, but without control of the Senate or the White House, the best they can probably do is use their new leverage to get the best possible cap-raising deal for FY 2020 and FY 2021. Immigration Just passing this along: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/416559-2020-politics-make-an-immigration-deal-unlikely-in-lame-duck <https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/416559-2020-politics-make-an-immigration-deal-unlikely-in-lame-duck> Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr Senior Policy Advisor National Coalition for Literacy www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> President, Committee for Education Funding Executive Director Physicians for Social Responsibility 1111 14th St, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC 20005 www.psr.org <http://www.psr.org/> | jcarter@psr.org <mailto:jcarter@psr.org>