members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org
National Coalition for Literacy Discussion List
View all threadsWashington Policy News for December 17
Hi everyone,
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the last week or so. Lot of this from CEF, so thanks to them as always.
Senator Alexander Retiring. Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced today that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2020. BIG! You all know of course that Sen. Alexander is a very influential member of Congress on all education issues as chair of HELP, and has a good relationship with the Ranking member, Senator Murray, and generally has tried to get things done in a nonpartisan way. He is also as a member of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. So this is a big deal. Some people are saying that this announcement increases the odds that he will push the HELP Committee to complete work on big things (like the Higher Education Act) since he’ll want to leave a strong post-retirement legacy.
FY 2019 Funding. This Friday, the current Continuing Resolution (CR) that is temporarily extending government funding at FY 2018 levels for programs under the seven remaining appropriations bills yet to be approved, will expire. Everything is done — and, again as a reminder, the Labor-Health-Education bill is not only done but passed some time ago — the hangup is just about the wall money. I’m sure many of you saw the TV reality show thing last week with the congressional Minority Leaders in which the President said he would be happy to shut down those agencies by refusing to sign another extension or any final funding bills that do not include at least $5 billion for his southern border wall — above the $1.6 billion in the Senate Homeland Security funding bill, and more than the $1.3 billion provided for FY 2018, most of which has not yet even been spent yet.
What will happen? I have no idea. Here are some options. Option 1: Congress passes another short-term CR and the President signs it and they call come back right after Christmas to fight another day; or Option 2: They don’t pass a CR and/or the President vetoes it if they do, everyone goes home for Christmas and lets the partial shutdown occur and then they return next week to fight some more; or, Option 3: Congress could finish all the bills other than Homeland Security, and roll them into an omnibus spending bill that CRs just the Homeland Security appropriations bill at existing levels. That last option seems pretty unlikely, since that not only won’t meet the President's demands, it would actually result in even less going for the border wall in 2019 than what Congress was willing to give. I will say, talking to CEF staff today and some environment groups late last week… people are planning right now on a partial shutdown. It is a significant possibility.
Committees and Chairs. At the end of last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Democratic committee membership for the 116th Congress. Here is the list:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
Note that Senator-elect Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be replacing Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) on the HELP Committee. Current HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) will maintain her role as Ranking Member of the Committee. On Budget, note that Senator Angus King (I-ME) is not listed, so presumably he is no longer be on that committee?
Republicans have not yet announced their committee assignments, and it is possible that if ratios change there may be some more names dropping on or off and/or moving around. (Because Republicans will have a larger majority in the Senate, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats on committees will likely change — Republicans probably will get one more person on each committee.)
In the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on behalf of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, announced committee chairs. Current Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby Scott (D-VA) will be the Chairman of the Education and the Labor Committee, as we already knew — and yes, it is going back to its old name.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the current chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, could be in line to be the ranking member of the House Rules Committee next year. However, Rep. Cole has said he does not want to give up his leadership role on the Appropriations Subcommittee.
Senate 2019 calendar - This week the Senate published its tentative schedule for 2019: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf
Legislation. On December 12, the House passed the conference report for HR-2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," i.e. the farm bill. Senate passed it the day before. As we had previously discussed, the bill does not include stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) and does not significantly change the program. Sorry, I don’t have a link for this or more details — there are, of course, several sources within our membership who worked /followed this closely, like the National Skills Coalition and CLASP.
Agencies. Even though I fear that this will likely keep many of you distracted from your upcoming holiday plans, I feel it is my duty to report that last Friday, the Department of Labor published online the required two-year modification submitted by states and territories to their four-year WIOA State Plans. You can view, download, and search them here:
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
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
Really informative update. Thanks Jeff!
Michele
MICHELE DIECUCH | Director of Programs
ProLiteracyhttp://www.proliteracy.org/ | 101 Wyoming St. | Syracuse, NY 13204
p 315.214.2576 | f 315.422.6369 | mdiecuch@proliteracy.orgmailto:mdiecuch@proliteracy.org
Find us and follow us on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/ProLiteracy/59618669707 and Twitterhttp://twitter.com/#!/ProLitWorld.
Help ProLiteracy advance the cause of adult literacy.http://www.proliteracy.org/give
From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Carter
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 6:07 PM
To: Nation Coalition for Literacy members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org
Subject: [NCL Members] Washington Policy News for December 17
Hi everyone,
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the last week or so. Lot of this from CEF, so thanks to them as always.
Senator Alexander Retiring. Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced today that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2020. BIG! You all know of course that Sen. Alexander is a very influential member of Congress on all education issues as chair of HELP, and has a good relationship with the Ranking member, Senator Murray, and generally has tried to get things done in a nonpartisan way. He is also as a member of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. So this is a big deal. Some people are saying that this announcement increases the odds that he will push the HELP Committee to complete work on big things (like the Higher Education Act) since he’ll want to leave a strong post-retirement legacy.
FY 2019 Funding. This Friday, the current Continuing Resolution (CR) that is temporarily extending government funding at FY 2018 levels for programs under the seven remaining appropriations bills yet to be approved, will expire. Everything is done — and, again as a reminder, the Labor-Health-Education bill is not only done but passed some time ago — the hangup is just about the wall money. I’m sure many of you saw the TV reality show thing last week with the congressional Minority Leaders in which the President said he would be happy to shut down those agencies by refusing to sign another extension or any final funding bills that do not include at least $5 billion for his southern border wall — above the $1.6 billion in the Senate Homeland Security funding bill, and more than the $1.3 billion provided for FY 2018, most of which has not yet even been spent yet.
What will happen? I have no idea. Here are some options. Option 1: Congress passes another short-term CR and the President signs it and they call come back right after Christmas to fight another day; or Option 2: They don’t pass a CR and/or the President vetoes it if they do, everyone goes home for Christmas and lets the partial shutdown occur and then they return next week to fight some more; or, Option 3: Congress could finish all the bills other than Homeland Security, and roll them into an omnibus spending bill that CRs just the Homeland Security appropriations bill at existing levels. That last option seems pretty unlikely, since that not only won’t meet the President's demands, it would actually result in even less going for the border wall in 2019 than what Congress was willing to give. I will say, talking to CEF staff today and some environment groups late last week… people are planning right now on a partial shutdown. It is a significant possibility.
Committees and Chairs. At the end of last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Democratic committee membership for the 116th Congress. Here is the list:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
Note that Senator-elect Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be replacing Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) on the HELP Committee. Current HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) will maintain her role as Ranking Member of the Committee. On Budget, note that Senator Angus King (I-ME) is not listed, so presumably he is no longer be on that committee?
Republicans have not yet announced their committee assignments, and it is possible that if ratios change there may be some more names dropping on or off and/or moving around. (Because Republicans will have a larger majority in the Senate, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats on committees will likely change — Republicans probably will get one more person on each committee.)
In the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on behalf of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, announced committee chairs. Current Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby Scott (D-VA) will be the Chairman of the Education and the Labor Committee, as we already knew — and yes, it is going back to its old name.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the current chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, could be in line to be the ranking member of the House Rules Committee next year. However, Rep. Cole has said he does not want to give up his leadership role on the Appropriations Subcommittee.
Senate 2019 calendar - This week the Senate published its tentative schedule for 2019: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf
Legislation. On December 12, the House passed the conference report for HR-2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," i.e. the farm bill. Senate passed it the day before. As we had previously discussed, the bill does not include stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) and does not significantly change the program. Sorry, I don’t have a link for this or more details — there are, of course, several sources within our membership who worked /followed this closely, like the National Skills Coalition and CLASP.
Agencies. Even though I fear that this will likely keep many of you distracted from your upcoming holiday plans, I feel it is my duty to report that last Friday, the Department of Labor published online the required two-year modification submitted by states and territories to their four-year WIOA State Plans. You can view, download, and search them here:
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
Jeff
Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr
Senior Policy Advisor
National Coalition for Literacy
www.national-coalition-literacy.orghttp://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/
jcarter@literacypolicy.orgmailto: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.orghttp://www.psr.org/ | jcarter@psr.orgmailto:jcarter@psr.org
Thanks, MIchele!
As a followup to the FY 2019 Funding item below, there's been a lot of back and forth the last few days — especially today — on a CR to avert a shutdown. One of the interesting things about negotiating these CRs, which are in theory a pretty simple piece of legislation, since it has the fairly narrow purpose of keeping things in a holding pattern for a while, is that it’s still a piece of real live legislation — and, importantly, “must-pass” legislation — and thus viewed by members of Congress as a vehicle to attach other "wish list" bills to. But the more things that are attached, the more complicated it gets, and potentially more difficult it gets to agree on the bill. That's why managers prefer “clean” CRs.
So this afternoon, for example, things broke down because of members who would like to use the CR to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Not sure where that stands at this hour.
My guess is that in the end the CR will get done at close to the last minute and they will be out of here maybe as early as tmw. But hard to be sure, esp. with the unpredictable-ness of the WH.
Jeff
On Dec 18, 2018, at 1:23 PM, Michele Diecuch MDiecuch@proliteracy.org wrote:
Really informative update. Thanks Jeff!
Michele
MICHELE DIECUCH | Director of Programs
ProLiteracy http://www.proliteracy.org/ | 101 Wyoming St. | Syracuse, NY 13204
p 315.214.2576 tel:315.214.2576 | f 315.422.6369 tel:315.422.6369 | mdiecuch@proliteracy.org mailto:mdiecuch@proliteracy.org
Find us and follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/ProLiteracy/59618669707 and Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/ProLitWorld.
Help ProLiteracy advance the cause of adult literacy. http://www.proliteracy.org/give
From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Carter
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 6:07 PM
To: Nation Coalition for Literacy <members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org mailto:members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org>
Subject: [NCL Members] Washington Policy News for December 17
Hi everyone,
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the last week or so. Lot of this from CEF, so thanks to them as always.
Senator Alexander Retiring. Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced today that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2020. BIG! You all know of course that Sen. Alexander is a very influential member of Congress on all education issues as chair of HELP, and has a good relationship with the Ranking member, Senator Murray, and generally has tried to get things done in a nonpartisan way. He is also as a member of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. So this is a big deal. Some people are saying that this announcement increases the odds that he will push the HELP Committee to complete work on big things (like the Higher Education Act) since he’ll want to leave a strong post-retirement legacy.
FY 2019 Funding. This Friday, the current Continuing Resolution (CR) that is temporarily extending government funding at FY 2018 levels for programs under the seven remaining appropriations bills yet to be approved, will expire. Everything is done — and, again as a reminder, the Labor-Health-Education bill is not only done but passed some time ago — the hangup is just about the wall money. I’m sure many of you saw the TV reality show thing last week with the congressional Minority Leaders in which the President said he would be happy to shut down those agencies by refusing to sign another extension or any final funding bills that do not include at least $5 billion for his southern border wall — above the $1.6 billion in the Senate Homeland Security funding bill, and more than the $1.3 billion provided for FY 2018, most of which has not yet even been spent yet.
What will happen? I have no idea. Here are some options. Option 1: Congress passes another short-term CR and the President signs it and they call come back right after Christmas to fight another day; or Option 2: They don’t pass a CR and/or the President vetoes it if they do, everyone goes home for Christmas and lets the partial shutdown occur and then they return next week to fight some more; or, Option 3: Congress could finish all the bills other than Homeland Security, and roll them into an omnibus spending bill that CRs just the Homeland Security appropriations bill at existing levels. That last option seems pretty unlikely, since that not only won’t meet the President's demands, it would actually result in even less going for the border wall in 2019 than what Congress was willing to give. I will say, talking to CEF staff today and some environment groups late last week… people are planning right now on a partial shutdown. It is a significant possibility.
Committees and Chairs. At the end of last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Democratic committee membership for the 116th Congress. Here is the list:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
Note that Senator-elect Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be replacing Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) on the HELP Committee. Current HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) will maintain her role as Ranking Member of the Committee. On Budget, note that Senator Angus King (I-ME) is not listed, so presumably he is no longer be on that committee?
Republicans have not yet announced their committee assignments, and it is possible that if ratios change there may be some more names dropping on or off and/or moving around. (Because Republicans will have a larger majority in the Senate, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats on committees will likely change — Republicans probably will get one more person on each committee.)
In the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on behalf of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, announced committee chairs. Current Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby Scott (D-VA) will be the Chairman of the Education and the Labor Committee, as we already knew — and yes, it is going back to its old name.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the current chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, could be in line to be the ranking member of the House Rules Committee next year. However, Rep. Cole has said he does not want to give up his leadership role on the Appropriations Subcommittee.
Senate 2019 calendar - This week the Senate published its tentative schedule for 2019: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf
Legislation. On December 12, the House passed the conference report for HR-2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," i.e. the farm bill. Senate passed it the day before. As we had previously discussed, the bill does not include stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) and does not significantly change the program. Sorry, I don’t have a link for this or more details — there are, of course, several sources within our membership who worked /followed this closely, like the National Skills Coalition and CLASP.
Agencies. Even though I fear that this will likely keep many of you distracted from your upcoming holiday plans, I feel it is my duty to report that last Friday, the Department of Labor published online the required two-year modification submitted by states and territories to their four-year WIOA State Plans. You can view, download, and search them here:
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
Jeff
Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 tel:(202)%20374-4387 | @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
Shutdown now looking increasingly likely. Of course, often breakthroughs occur when things look their bleakest, but there is a significant gap between what the Senate passed and the House passed today and I don’t know how they work through this in 24 hours or so. Maybe someone wiser than me on this list has an insight.
In any case, I realize that if you are interested in the ongoing drama related to the CR and government shutdown threat, the news media is covering this pretty closely now, and you don’t need me to continually update you, so I’ll stop. Again, the adult education community — education generally, in fact — is weirdly on the sidelines for this as the Labor-H-Ed bill passed many months ago. No one from OCTAE will be furloughed. :)
Jeff
On Dec 19, 2018, at 5:08 PM, Jeff Carter jcarter@literacypolicy.org wrote:
Thanks, MIchele!
As a followup to the FY 2019 Funding item below, there's been a lot of back and forth the last few days — especially today — on a CR to avert a shutdown. One of the interesting things about negotiating these CRs, which are in theory a pretty simple piece of legislation, since it has the fairly narrow purpose of keeping things in a holding pattern for a while, is that it’s still a piece of real live legislation — and, importantly, “must-pass” legislation — and thus viewed by members of Congress as a vehicle to attach other "wish list" bills to. But the more things that are attached, the more complicated it gets, and potentially more difficult it gets to agree on the bill. That's why managers prefer “clean” CRs.
So this afternoon, for example, things broke down because of members who would like to use the CR to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Not sure where that stands at this hour.
My guess is that in the end the CR will get done at close to the last minute and they will be out of here maybe as early as tmw. But hard to be sure, esp. with the unpredictable-ness of the WH.
Jeff
On Dec 18, 2018, at 1:23 PM, Michele Diecuch <MDiecuch@proliteracy.org mailto:MDiecuch@proliteracy.org> wrote:
Really informative update. Thanks Jeff!
Michele
MICHELE DIECUCH | Director of Programs
ProLiteracy http://www.proliteracy.org/ | 101 Wyoming St. | Syracuse, NY 13204
p 315.214.2576 tel:315.214.2576 | f 315.422.6369 tel:315.422.6369 | mdiecuch@proliteracy.org mailto:mdiecuch@proliteracy.org
Find us and follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/ProLiteracy/59618669707 and Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/ProLitWorld.
Help ProLiteracy advance the cause of adult literacy. http://www.proliteracy.org/give
From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Carter
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 6:07 PM
To: Nation Coalition for Literacy <members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org mailto:members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org>
Subject: [NCL Members] Washington Policy News for December 17
Hi everyone,
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the last week or so. Lot of this from CEF, so thanks to them as always.
Senator Alexander Retiring. Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced today that he will not run for re-election to the Senate in 2020. BIG! You all know of course that Sen. Alexander is a very influential member of Congress on all education issues as chair of HELP, and has a good relationship with the Ranking member, Senator Murray, and generally has tried to get things done in a nonpartisan way. He is also as a member of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. So this is a big deal. Some people are saying that this announcement increases the odds that he will push the HELP Committee to complete work on big things (like the Higher Education Act) since he’ll want to leave a strong post-retirement legacy.
FY 2019 Funding. This Friday, the current Continuing Resolution (CR) that is temporarily extending government funding at FY 2018 levels for programs under the seven remaining appropriations bills yet to be approved, will expire. Everything is done — and, again as a reminder, the Labor-Health-Education bill is not only done but passed some time ago — the hangup is just about the wall money. I’m sure many of you saw the TV reality show thing last week with the congressional Minority Leaders in which the President said he would be happy to shut down those agencies by refusing to sign another extension or any final funding bills that do not include at least $5 billion for his southern border wall — above the $1.6 billion in the Senate Homeland Security funding bill, and more than the $1.3 billion provided for FY 2018, most of which has not yet even been spent yet.
What will happen? I have no idea. Here are some options. Option 1: Congress passes another short-term CR and the President signs it and they call come back right after Christmas to fight another day; or Option 2: They don’t pass a CR and/or the President vetoes it if they do, everyone goes home for Christmas and lets the partial shutdown occur and then they return next week to fight some more; or, Option 3: Congress could finish all the bills other than Homeland Security, and roll them into an omnibus spending bill that CRs just the Homeland Security appropriations bill at existing levels. That last option seems pretty unlikely, since that not only won’t meet the President's demands, it would actually result in even less going for the border wall in 2019 than what Congress was willing to give. I will say, talking to CEF staff today and some environment groups late last week… people are planning right now on a partial shutdown. It is a significant possibility.
Committees and Chairs. At the end of last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Democratic committee membership for the 116th Congress. Here is the list:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
Note that Senator-elect Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be replacing Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) on the HELP Committee. Current HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) will maintain her role as Ranking Member of the Committee. On Budget, note that Senator Angus King (I-ME) is not listed, so presumably he is no longer be on that committee?
Republicans have not yet announced their committee assignments, and it is possible that if ratios change there may be some more names dropping on or off and/or moving around. (Because Republicans will have a larger majority in the Senate, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats on committees will likely change — Republicans probably will get one more person on each committee.)
In the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on behalf of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, announced committee chairs. Current Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby Scott (D-VA) will be the Chairman of the Education and the Labor Committee, as we already knew — and yes, it is going back to its old name.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the current chair of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, could be in line to be the ranking member of the House Rules Committee next year. However, Rep. Cole has said he does not want to give up his leadership role on the Appropriations Subcommittee.
Senate 2019 calendar - This week the Senate published its tentative schedule for 2019: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf
Legislation. On December 12, the House passed the conference report for HR-2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," i.e. the farm bill. Senate passed it the day before. As we had previously discussed, the bill does not include stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) and does not significantly change the program. Sorry, I don’t have a link for this or more details — there are, of course, several sources within our membership who worked /followed this closely, like the National Skills Coalition and CLASP.
Agencies. Even though I fear that this will likely keep many of you distracted from your upcoming holiday plans, I feel it is my duty to report that last Friday, the Department of Labor published online the required two-year modification submitted by states and territories to their four-year WIOA State Plans. You can view, download, and search them here:
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
Jeff
Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 tel:(202)%20374-4387 | @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
I love the updates and commentary!
On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 7:49 PM Jeff Carter jcarter@literacypolicy.org
wrote:
Shutdown now looking increasingly likely. Of course, often breakthroughs
occur when things look their bleakest, but there is a significant gap
between what the Senate passed and the House passed today and I don’t know
how they work through this in 24 hours or so. Maybe someone wiser than me
on this list has an insight.
In any case, I realize that if you are interested in the ongoing drama
related to the CR and government shutdown threat, the news media is
covering this pretty closely now, and you don’t need me to continually
update you, so I’ll stop. Again, the adult education community —
education generally, in fact — is weirdly on the sidelines for this as the
Labor-H-Ed bill passed many months ago. No one from OCTAE will be
furloughed. :)
Jeff
On Dec 19, 2018, at 5:08 PM, Jeff Carter jcarter@literacypolicy.org
wrote:
Thanks, MIchele!
As a followup to the FY 2019 Funding item below, there's been a lot of
back and forth the last few days — especially today — on a CR to avert a
shutdown. One of the interesting things about negotiating these CRs, which
are in theory a pretty simple piece of legislation, since it has the fairly
narrow purpose of keeping things in a holding pattern for a while, is that
it’s still a piece of real live legislation — and, importantly,
“must-pass” legislation — and thus viewed by members of Congress as a
vehicle to attach other "wish list" bills to. But the more things that are
attached, the more complicated it gets, and potentially more difficult it
gets to agree on the bill. That's why managers prefer “clean” CRs.
So this afternoon, for example, things broke down because of members who
would like to use the CR to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation
Fund. Not sure where that stands at this hour.
My guess is that in the end the CR will get done at close to the last
minute and they will be out of here maybe as early as tmw. But hard to be
sure, esp. with the unpredictable-ness of the WH.
Jeff
On Dec 18, 2018, at 1:23 PM, Michele Diecuch MDiecuch@proliteracy.org
wrote:
Really informative update. Thanks Jeff!
Michele
MICHELE DIECUCH | Director of Programs
ProLiteracy http://www.proliteracy.org/ | 101 Wyoming St. |
Syracuse, NY 13204
p 315.214.2576 | f 315.422.6369 | mdiecuch@proliteracy.org
mdiecuch@proliteracy.org
Find us and follow us on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ProLiteracy/59618669707 and Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/ProLitWorld.
Help ProLiteracy advance the cause of adult literacy.
http://www.proliteracy.org/give
From: Members [
mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org
members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org] *On Behalf Of *Jeff
Carter
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 6:07 PM
To: Nation Coalition for Literacy <
members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org>
Subject: [NCL Members] Washington Policy News for December 17
Hi everyone,
Here are some tidbits I’ve picked up over the last week or so. Lot of this
from CEF, so thanks to them as always.
*Senator Alexander Retiring. *Senate HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander
(R-TN) announced today that he will not run for re-election to the
Senate in 2020. BIG! You all know of course that Sen. Alexander is a
very influential member of Congress on all education issues as chair of
HELP, and has a good relationship with the Ranking member, Senator Murray,
and generally has tried to get things done in a nonpartisan way. He is also
as a member of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. So this
is a big deal. Some people are saying that this announcement increases the
odds that he will push the HELP Committee to complete work on big things
(like the Higher Education Act) since he’ll want to leave a strong
post-retirement legacy.
FY 2019 Funding. This Friday, the current Continuing Resolution (CR)
that is temporarily extending government funding at FY 2018 levels for
programs under the seven remaining appropriations bills yet to be approved,
will expire. Everything is done — and, again as a reminder, the
Labor-Health-Education bill is not only done but passed some time ago — the
hangup is just about the wall money. I’m sure many of you saw the TV
reality show thing last week with the congressional Minority Leaders in
which the President said he would be happy to shut down those agencies by
refusing to sign another extension or any final funding bills that do not
include at least $5 billion for his southern border wall — above the $1.6
billion in the Senate Homeland Security funding bill, and more than the
$1.3 billion provided for FY 2018, most of which has not yet even been
spent yet.
What will happen? I have no idea. Here are some options. Option 1:
Congress passes another short-term CR and the President signs it and they
call come back right after Christmas to fight another day; or Option 2:
They don’t pass a CR and/or the President vetoes it if they do, everyone
goes home for Christmas and lets the partial shutdown occur and then they
return next week to fight some more; or, Option 3: Congress could finish
all the bills other than Homeland Security, and roll them into an omnibus
spending bill that CRs just the Homeland Security appropriations bill at
existing levels. That last option seems pretty unlikely, since that not
only won’t meet the President's demands, it would actually result in even
less going for the border wall in 2019 than what Congress was willing to
give. I will say, talking to CEF staff today and some environment groups
late last week… people are planning right now on a partial shutdown. It is
a significant possibility.
Committees and Chairs. At the end of last week, Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Democratic committee membership for the
116th Congress. Here is the list:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-senate-democratic-committee-memberships-for-the-116th-congress
Note that Senator-elect Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be replacing Senator
Michael Bennett (D-CO) on the HELP Committee. Current HELP Committee
Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) will maintain her role as Ranking Member
of the Committee. On Budget, note that Senator Angus King (I-ME) is not
listed, so presumably he is no longer be on that committee?
Republicans have not yet announced their committee assignments, and it is
possible that if ratios change there may be some more names dropping on or
off and/or moving around. (Because Republicans will have a larger majority
in the Senate, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats on committees will
likely change — Republicans probably will get one more person on each
committee.)
In the House, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on behalf of the
Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, announced committee chairs.
Current Ranking Member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee Bobby
Scott (D-VA) will be the Chairman of the Education and the Labor
Committee, as we already knew — and yes, it is going back to its old name.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the current chair of the House
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, could be in line to be the
ranking member of the House Rules Committee next year. However, Rep. Cole
has said he does not want to give up his leadership role on the
Appropriations Subcommittee.
Senate 2019 calendar - This week the Senate published its tentative
schedule for 2019:
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/resources/pdf/2019_calendar.pdf
Legislation. On December 12, the House passed the conference report for
HR-2, the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," i.e. the farm bill. Senate
passed it the day before. As we had previously discussed, the bill does not
include stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition and
Assistance Program (SNAP) and does not significantly change the program.
Sorry, I don’t have a link for this or more details — there are, of course,
several sources within our membership who worked /followed this closely,
like the National Skills Coalition and CLASP.
Agencies. Even though I fear that this will likely keep many of you
distracted from your upcoming holiday plans, I feel it is my duty to report
that last Friday, the Department of Labor published online the required
two-year modification submitted by states and territories to their
four-year WIOA State Plans. You can view, download, and search them here:
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
https://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/spotlight/2018-12-14.cfm#Federal_Partners_Announce_Availability
Jeff
Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr
Senior Policy Advisor
National Coalition for Literacy
www.national-coalition-literacy.org
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 | jcarter@psr.org
National Coalition for Literacy Members mailing list
Members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org
To unsubscribe:
http://lists.national-coalition-literacy.org/mailman/listinfo/members_lists.national-coalition-literacy.org
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile