Happy New Year! Latest stuff I’m hearing/reading about. Warning: especially tedious stuff ahead. And apologies in advance for any blatant plagiarism of CEF materials… - Jeff Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Funding. As you will recall, prior to this week, five of the twelve fiscal year (FY) 2019 appropriations bills – including the one providing education funding and WIOA funding – have already been signed into law. The Senate passed bipartisan versions of four of the remaining seven bills, and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved bipartisan versions of the other three bills but these did not make it to the Senate floor. The House, meanwhile, approved Republican versions of two of the seven bills, and the House Appropriations Committee approved the other five without advancing them to the floor. With me so far? Anyway, none of this activity produced a final set of spending bills to send to the President that included the $5.7 billion for a border wall he wants. And so we had — and continue to have — a partial government shutdown. The House — officially now controlled by the Democrats — passed a package last night that provided a short-term extension at current funding levels (i.e. another CR) for one of the bills — Homeland Security — through February 8 and the rest of the Senate’s bipartisan full-year funding versions of the other six bills. The six-bill package passed the House 241-190 on Thursday night, and the CR for Homeland Security passed 239-192. (A smattering of Republicans broke ranks on each of them to vote yes, by the way.) So again, no question Congress is ready to go on a bipartisan basis with six of the seven bills. The problem is Homeland Security, which is where the wall funding would come from. The President still says he won’t sign anything if it doesn’t include $5.7 billion of wall money, and, needless to say, this funding was not included in the Democratic package above. And so, Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has pledged that he will not move what the House passed, or any other government funding bill, without Trump's support. That would seem leave us in a continued stalemate, until/unless the President changes his position. McConnell predicted the shutdown could drag on for weeks, and House Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) was quoted as saying “this could be the longest shutdown that we've had in the history of Congress." According to the New York Times just now, after a meeting with Democratic leaders that they described as “sometimes contentious,” President Trump threatened to keep agencies closed for “months or even years.” We shall see. The 116th Congress: Committees. Today House Democrats are going through the process of filling out committee memberships and approving new Chairs. They start with the committees that are considered “exclusive” in that the members of these committees can’t usually serve on other committees: This includes Appropriations, Rules, Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Financial Services. It will take a week or two before all the committee assignments are set. One important assignment from our perspective has been made: Rep. Bobby Scott has been chosen, as expected, to serve as Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee. https://edlabor.house.gov/media/press-releases/scott-statement-on-election-as-chairman-of-education-and-labor-committee <https://edlabor.house.gov/media/press-releases/scott-statement-on-election-as-chairman-of-education-and-labor-committee> One thing interesting about the Democrats taking over the House is that it not only increases the number of Democrats on each committee, it also means the number of Democratic committee staff will expand and the number of Republican staff will shrink. And, as a consequence, a lot of people are sort of going to be shuffling around, and some new staff will be coming on board. Based on an off-the-record conversation I had with a member of Rep. Scott’s staff last month, I expect we will see some better expertise regarding WIOA on the Committee staff in the 116th. The 116th Congress: House Rules Package. On January 2, Speaker-designate Pelosi (and now, of course, officially Speaker once again) and incoming House Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern (D-MA) today released their rules for the 116th Congress. Among other changes, the rules change the name of the Committee on Education and the Workforce back to the Committee on Education and Labor, as noted above. One controversial change of note: Democrats are reinstating a modified pay-as-you-go point of order that requires legislation making changes to revenues or mandatory spending to not increase the deficit over specified years. This was/is known as the “PAYGO” rule. Some members of the party really hate this rule, as (they argue) it will stifle legislative efforts to pass things that are on the progressive wish list, like medicare-for-all or free college. (As an interesting aside, I have found senior House Democratic Committee staff opposition to the call for free college by the progressive wing of the party to be surprisingly... robust.) Among the counter-arguments to the complaints about the rule: (1) none of these big spending proposals are going to go anywhere anyway with Republicans in control of the Senate and WH, and (2) the House rules can be and are often waived. Republicans had a “CUTGO” rule that required offsets only for mandatory spending increases, not tax cuts (neither rule applies to discretionary spending). A CEF update this week reminded us that there is a separate PAYGO statute that leads to automatic sequestration if the total costs of the mandatory spending and revenue bills enacted during that congressional session are not offset. Administration. Back in December, the Department of Education finalized a reorganization plan that goes into effect January 6, although the Department has said it will take many months to implement. The new structure consolidates a number of offices: The Office of the Secretary will merge with the Office of the Deputy Secretary. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer will merge with the Office of Management to become a new office, the Office of Finance and Operations. This new office will also take on the responsibilities of other agency offices including the Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of the Deputy Secretary, and the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Finally, the Office of Innovation and Improvement will also "integrate" (interpret that however you like) into the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. I will let you take a moment to collect yourselves after reading this exciting news. Offhand, I cannot think of anything in this of major relevance to adult ed — but let us know if you think otherwise. What else is going on? Jeff