2018 Appropriations
As expected, the House and Senate passed a CR last night to keep everything going through December 22nd. The conventional wisdom today seems to be that they will have a deal to raise the caps by the 22nd, then they’ll pass another short-term CR to give them a month or so to finalize a FY 2018 appropriations omnibus bill early next year.
Not clear what might or might not be attached to that Dec 22nd CR. You’ll recall that Democratic leaders have made noises about not leaving town until something is done on DACA/DREAMers. Yet, on the other side, POLITICO this morning quoted Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker as saying “[t]he three things we were told are not gonna happen as part of our agreement: no CSRs, no DACA, no debt limit.”
Tax Reform
Despite all the differences to be resolved between the House and Senate bills, recent resignations and next week’s special election in Alabama, and the potential that they’ll end up reneging on promises made to people like Sen. Collins and Sen. Flake during the Senate negotiations, the consensus at the CEF meeting this morning is that there is no way a tax bill isn’t going to be completed and signed by the president in some form or another before they go home for the year.
HEA
Figured many of you would be interested in ACCT's summary of the House HEA bill:
https://www.acct.org/files/Advocacy/Factsheets%20and%20Summaries/Prosper%20Act%20bill%20summary.pdf https://www.acct.org/files/Advocacy/Factsheets%20and%20Summaries/Prosper%20Act%20bill%20summary.pdf
The bill is going to be marked up this coming Tuesday.
A higher education colleague said to me today that, while acknowledging to her group that the bill is bad, she is also emphasizing that this is sort of the equivalent of the first inning of a nine-inning game — i.e. lots of time to go.
In fact, another speculation I heard today is that Democrats might not be in a hurry to move on a better bill in the Senate so long as they can hammer Republicans on the terribleness of the House bill in the 2018 mid-term campaigns.
Jeff
2018 Appropriations
As expected, the House and Senate passed a CR last night to keep everything going through December 22nd. The conventional wisdom today seems to be that they will have a deal to raise the caps by the 22nd, then they’ll pass another short-term CR to give them a month or so to finalize a FY 2018 appropriations omnibus bill early next year.
Not clear what might or might not be attached to that Dec 22nd CR. You’ll recall that Democratic leaders have made noises about not leaving town until something is done on DACA/DREAMers. Yet, on the other side, POLITICO this morning quoted Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker as saying “[t]he three things we were told are not gonna happen as part of our agreement: no CSRs, no DACA, no debt limit.”
Tax Reform
Despite all the differences to be resolved between the House and Senate bills, recent resignations and next week’s special election in Alabama, and the potential that they’ll end up reneging on promises made to people like Sen. Collins and Sen. Flake during the Senate negotiations, the consensus at the CEF meeting this morning is that there is no way a tax bill isn’t going to be completed and signed by the president in some form or another before they go home for the year.
HEA
Figured many of you would be interested in ACCT's summary of the House HEA bill:
https://www.acct.org/files/Advocacy/Factsheets%20and%20Summaries/Prosper%20Act%20bill%20summary.pdf <https://www.acct.org/files/Advocacy/Factsheets%20and%20Summaries/Prosper%20Act%20bill%20summary.pdf>
The bill is going to be marked up this coming Tuesday.
A higher education colleague said to me today that, while acknowledging to her group that the bill is bad, she is also emphasizing that this is sort of the equivalent of the first inning of a nine-inning game — i.e. lots of time to go.
In fact, another speculation I heard today is that Democrats might not be in a hurry to move on a better bill in the Senate so long as they can hammer Republicans on the terribleness of the House bill in the 2018 mid-term campaigns.
Jeff
