As usual, much cribbed from CEF. Anything that I’ve pulled from one of their updates verbatim I have put in quotes. FY 2018 APPROPRIATIONS Still waiting. It's complicated by the fact that multiple things are being negotiated at the same time: mainly, the actual spending bill and DACA. Democrats don’t have many “must-pass” bills, like the annual appropriations bill, to leverage in order to get some DACA-like legislation passed. Meanwhile the President has said he will not make a deal on DACA unless the package includes new funding for a border wall with Mexico and other conditions. Press reports are that the request is for $18 billion over ten years for a wall, plus another $15 billion for technology, roads, and personnel. Trump is , as usual, all over the place. He seemed really intransigent over the weekend, but just now emerged from this meeting with Congressional leaders open to the idea of even broader immigration reform, and expressed a willingness to agree to things that would displease his supporters. > “If you want to take it that further step, I’ll take the heat,” Mr. Trump told Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who floated the idea during the meeting in the White House Cabinet Room on Tuesday. “You are not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/politics/trump-daca-immigration.html <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/politics/trump-daca-immigration.html> It appears that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been working the idea of doing something even bigger than just a legislative protection for DACA enrollees. Earlier Graham had been talking about just a clean extension of DACA for a year if they couldn’t agree on anything else. I am going to try to talk to someone who knows what’s going on (of course likely one of you do, also) before tomorrow’s call. As for the spending bill itself, they’re still stuck on the amount of the cap increase for defense and non-defense. (See previous updates.) The lack of progress on a spending deal raises the likelihood that Congress will once again extend current government funding temporarily — the fourth such “continuing resolution” since September. There really isn’t any way at this point to get an omnibus spending bill done by January 19th, which is when the latest CR expires. It takes at least three weeks for appropriators to create an omnibus package of spending bills once new discretionary caps are set. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is telling reporters that it should be easy to come up with a deal and get it done by the 19th, and predicting both sides will “come together” by then. I think that is more PR than it reflects reality. Sheryl Cohen of CEF reports that Senator Shelby (R-AL) said that the next CR might run until late February. I don’t think there is going to be a government shut down on the 19th. Key dates: January 19. Expiration of the continuing resolution (CR) that is funding government operations at 2017 levels. February 5. Statutory deadline for the President to submit his FY 2019 budget. However, there is no penalty for missing this deadline. The last administration missed this deadline pretty consistently. Sheryl notes that they might delay so that they can update their economic forecast in light of recently enacted changes (such as the December tax reform bill). End of February. Date by which Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has reportedly asked Congress to the debt limit. It’s possible that Congress will include an increase in the debt ceiling in the omnibus appropriations bill. OTHER NEWS New House Budget Committee Chair. Sheryl: "The Republican Steering Committee meets today to vote on a replacement for Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) to serve as chair of the House Budget Committee. Those vying for the seat are Reps. Steve Womack (R-AR), Rob Woodall (R-GA), and Bill Johnson (R-OH)." Department of Education Staffing News. Sheryl: "The Senate HELP Committee will vote on Thursday on a number of Administration nominees, including three for the Department of Education: Mitchell Zais to be Deputy Secretary and James Blew to be Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (they require a second Committee vote as their nominations did not get a Senate floor vote last year), and Kenneth Marcus to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.” Also James Lynn Woodworth has been appointed Commissioner of Education Statistics. Article in the Atlantic on Job Training. Mentions WIOA. IMO mainly just recycles stuff from similar articles written over the last decade — maybe there is more new there that I just didn’t catch. NCL member NSC is mentioned. Mary Alice McCarthy and Jane Oates also quoted here and there. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-false-promises-of-worker-retraining/549398/ <https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-false-promises-of-worker-retraining/549398/> Jeff