The House of Representatives is debating a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2011 (through Sep 30 this year). Below you can find relevant documents for the legislation as well as our analysis.

• Text of H.R.1 – Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (PDF | XML)
• Proposed Amendments (Amend 1 to 403) | Proposed Amendments (Amend 404 to 583)
• Program Cuts in the Continuing Resolution (Excel)
• Program Terminations in the Continuing Resolution (PDF)
• Spending Tables by Subcommittee (PDF)
• Appropriations Committee Final Summary of Continuing Resolution (PDF)

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Still Going on the CR (3:00 am report)

Okay, I admit it I woke up and flipped on the tv and Rep. Nadler (D-NY) is on the floor talking about the THUD approps section of the CR. so this is the last section of the bill, so we are winding down… But wait! There is a slew of limitation amendments that will come up at the end. Regardless, as promised we will update you on the night's hijinks in the morning.

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More On the CR

I've been waiting to see the breakdown of the roll call votes from this afternoon. But they haven’t been posted by the clerk. That said, there were a couple other interesting votes since the one on the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. Three more of the stacked 15 votes won this afternoon.

Rep. Weiner (D-NY) amendment #125 shifted $297 million from NASA to the Community Oriented Policy Services (vote was 228-203).

Rep. Flake (R-AZ) added another to his win column (though truth be told, his lifetime legislative batting average hasn’t been as good as TCS wishes) with amendment #368 which cut $34 million from the Justice budget for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) in Johnstown, PA. This facility was protected from budget cuts and Administration criticism for years by the late Defense appropriations Chair Murtha (D-PA) including a shouting match where the Congressman threatened Rep. Rogers (R-MI) for his opposition to the NDIC. The Center has been criticized with being duplicative (of centers in DC and El Paso, TX) for some time. It was typically funded purely by a House earmark. Savings from this amendment went to the Defense Spending Reduction Account and will reduce the subcommittees 302(b) allocation (top line) and go to deficit reduction.

Rep. Michaud (D-ME) amendment #153 to cut census funding by $80 million and shift it the Economic Development Administration (EDA) (vote 305-127).

Also Rep. Burton (R-IN) amendment #30 to cut Bureau of Land Management funding by $2 million to stop the agency’s management of the wild horse population in the West. That passed on a voice vote.

It would be even more interesting to see how the vote patterns broke down. My understanding is that the clerk will not be posting the roll call breakdowns until the end of the legislative day.

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Broad Spectrum of Groups Opposes Paying for Ethanol Infrastructure

February 16, 2011

The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker        
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressional Leaders,

The undersigned diverse group of business associations, hunger and development organizations, agricultural groups, environmental groups, budget hawks, and free marketers urge you to support the Flake Amendment, No. 377, to the Continuing Resolution, which would protect taxpayers from being forced to pay for ethanol pumps and storage facilities. We believe that taxpayers should not foot the bill for ethanol infrastructure; instead, this cost should be borne on the fuel providing (ethanol and oil) industries themselves.

Sincerely,

ActionAid USA
American Bakers Association
Americans for Limited Government
American Frozen Food Institute
American Meat Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Environmental Working Group
Freedom Action
FreedomWorks
Friends of the Earth
International Diary Foods Association
Grocery Manufacturers Association
Milk Producers Council
National Chicken Council
National Council of Chain Restaurants
National Meat Association
National Taxpayers Union
National Turkey Federation
Taxpayers for Common Sense
 

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More on the Alternate Engine

The House just voted 233-198-1 to deny funding for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine (F136) in FY11 appropriations. The vote came on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) that clipped $450 million from the Navy and Air Force research and development accounts in the defense bill attached to the Continuing Resolution legislation. This is an important vote for several reasons:

• The money will directly reduce the deficit, going into a “spending reduction account” created within the bill which reduces the defense 302(b) allocation, or budget topline.
   
• The yea votes were practically an even split between Republicans and Democrats, demonstrating the growing consensus in both parties that defense spending can no longer be considered off limits. Rooney himself epitomizes this trend: A new (second term) Republican representing a conservative district in Florida and a former Army JAG who sits on the Armed Services Committee.
   
• The vote represents a turnaround for the House, which has backed the engine program in the past despite veto threats from President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. This does not bode well for the program in the Senate, where backers of wasteful defense programs (F-22, anyone?) often counted on the House to get them into spending bills. Anyone who thought the new House Republican majority would nail down that support will have to think again.

One member of that majority—House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA)—will surely be disappointed. At a hearing on the FY2010 budget just this morning, McKeon said he had a “strong disagreement” with panelists Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen about the engine. But Gates and Mullen held fast in their argument that the program should be scrapped, with Gates calling it an “unnecessary and extravagant expense.”
 

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Big Win on Alternate Engine

The House just voted 233-198-1 to deny funding for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine (F136) in FY11 appropriations, saving $450 million. The vote was practically even split between Republicans and Democrats. This is a big victory for taxpayers. And credit to second-term Rep. Rooney (R-FL).

Here’s a statement from Taxpayers for Common Sense’s President, Ms. Ryan Alexander:

“This was an important vote to demonstrate that nothing should be off limits when it comes to cutting wasteful spending. If we’re going to deal with the enormous deficits, everything has to be on the table and that certainly includes defense spending. We hope this will lead the House to further scrutinize defense, entitlements and tax expenditures. The math is straightforward, we cannot balance the books on the back on non-security discretionary spending.”

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First Cut Amendment on CR

Rep. Flake (R-AZ) had the pleasure of being the lead sponsor on the very first amendment to the CR (he was joined by Rep. Lee (D-CA)). The amendment was to cut nearly $19 million from the Defense-wide Operations and Maintenance account that’s used to fund panels and commissions, there has been some criticism that there were too many of these (imagine that!). The final vote was 207-223 (I’m pretty sure) and the Ayes were pretty evenly split (92 Republicans, 115 Democrats). There were a bunch of (mostly Democrat) vote shifters after it was clear the amendment would fail.

TCS’s National Security person wrote up some interesting bits about this amendment and other items in the Defense portion, which I’ve pasted in below. Also, the way an open rule works for spending bills is that they will read their way through the bill and lawmakers who have filed an amendment (there are more than 400) have to gain recognition at the exact point of the bill their amendment deals with – if you’re too late, too bad. So we will be slogging through defense for a while, vote on a few stacked amendments and then keep going through the eleven other divisions of the bill (one for each spending bill). We’ll have more analysis as the amendments and the bill moves forward. Let me know if you have any questions.

I also want to highlight that one of the filed amendments seems to be a quasi-earmark that was being offered by Rep. Murphy (D-CT). Quasi, because it wouldn’t go to one company per se, but certainly give a company in his district a leg up. The amendment wasn’t subtle, but pretty darn specific. This could be a wave of the future:

Offered By: Mr. Murphy of Connecticut

Amendment No. 56: At the end of division A of the bill (before the short title), insert the following new section:
Sec. __.

None of the funds in this Act may be available for the purchase by the Department of Defense (and its departments and agencies) of seamless copper-nickel tubing, 4 inches and larger in outside diameter, used for shipboard pipe systems, that satisfies MIL-T-16420k unless the tubing is manufactured in the United States from components which are substantially manufactured in the United States: Provided, That for the purpose of this section substantially all of the components of seamless copper-nickel tubing, 4 inches and larger in outside diameter, used for shipboard pipe systems shall be considered to be produced or manufactured in the United States if the aggregate cost of the components produced or manufactured in the United States exceeds the aggregate cost of the components produced or manufactured outside the United States: Provided further, That when adequate domestic supplies are not available to meet Department of Defense requirements on a timely basis, the Secretary of the service responsible for the procurement may waive this restriction on a case-by-case basis by certifying in writing to the Committees on Appropriations that such an acquisition must be made in order to acquire capability for national security purposes.

And here’s Laura’s analysis:

From: Laura Peterson, Senior Policy Analyst, National Security
Subject: TCS National Security Spending Update: Defense Spending Sweeps the Floor

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) kicked off a legislative marathon in the House of Representatives today with an unusual partnership that might be indicative of the coming debate over defense spending. Flake introduced an amendment to a bill continuing funding for the federal government that would cut $18.75 million from the Defense Department’s operations and maintenance account. His co-sponsor was Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), a member of the Progressive Caucus. The amendment was opposed by Reps. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) and Norm Dicks (D-WA), top Republican and Democrat on the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.

Will lawmakers from the ends of the political spectrum unite to take on defense spending against the old bulls? Other defense-related amendments among the more than 400 filed to the bill—called a Continuing Resolution (CR)—would suggest so: Freshman John Pompeo (R-KS) joined second-termer Tom Rooney (R-FL) to redirect $450 million for the Joint Strike Fighter’s alternate engine to deficit reduction, while Progressive Caucus members Jared Polis (D-CO) and Luis Gutierrez proposed cutting back troop levels and eliminating the V-22 Osprey. Meanwhile, older-school Republican Todd Akin (R-MO) sponsored an amendment continuing funding for the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), a program Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already phased out of his FY2012 budget request.

In addition to the good and the bad, there’s the just ugly, such as the quasi-earmark proposed by Chris Murphy (D-CT) that would prevent DOD from purchasing “seamless copper-nickel tubing” for ship construction unless it was made in the US. (preferably in Murphy’s district, which is home to a tubing manufacturer Murphy has supported before).

The floor debate on these amendments will flag some defense programs likely to generate heat as this bill and the FY12 budget make their way through the new Congress. The CR also trims the defense budget a bit, for example cutting $1.5 billion from the Joint Strike Fighter for “program slips/schedule restructures” and cutting back on overzealous UAV funding. The base budget topline, however, gets an $8.1 billion increase to $516 billion – a 2.8 percent drop from the FY11 request but a 1.6 increase over FY10.

You can find our preliminary FY2012 budget analysis on defense and other agencies here . We’re providing running updates on the CR and over the coming weeks, so keep checking back, and of course give a call with any questions.

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CR Misses the Mark On Loan Guarantees

The House Continuing Appropriations Bill (CR) offers ample fodder for the chopping block. Unfortunately, House Republicans released a draft bill that axes only part of one of the most egregious government initiatives– the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program. The draft CR eliminates $25 billion currently allocated to the program but leaves more than $25 billion on the table–$18.5 billion of which is earmarked for high risk nuclear reactors and another $2 billion for uranium enrichment. But nuclear subsidies need to be on the chopping block too. The nuclear industry has been the recipient of billions of subsidies since the early 1930's. This new batch of reactors are high risk, face enormous technical hurdles, and have skyrocketing costs. Wall Street has stayed away from this risky investment and it's time taxpayers do the same! The plug must be pulled on the entire Loan Guarantee Program. It cannot be kept alive as the “Nuclear” Loan Guarantee Program.