This Week on the Hill
The House and Senate are both in session this week, with three weeks remaining until the current continuing resolution expires on March 23.
The House convenes today and will consider seven bills under suspension of the rules. On Tuesday, the chamber will consider several bills including H.R. 4607, the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act. For the remainder of the week, the House will consider two more bills, with no votes scheduled for Friday. Several committees scheduled hearings this week: the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on the administration’s infrastructure proposal and a hearing Wednesday on long-term funding for highways and transit programs; and the Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on strengthening welfare to work with child care.
The Senate convenes today and will continue consideration of judicial nominations. Later this week the Senate is expected to begin consideration of S. 2155, which would make changes to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill. Several committees scheduled hearings this week: the Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on state innovations in fighting the opioid crisis and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will markup H.R. 2825, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act.
Members Appointed to Budget Process Overhaul Committee
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-123) included a provision creating a select committee tasked with reforming the federal budget process. The Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform is required to hold at least five public meetings and vote on a report before November 30 containing its recommendations and legislation. To be approved by the committee, any proposal must have the support of a majority of both parties. The following members were named by leaders in the House and Senate: for House Republicans, Representatives Steve Womack (R-AR), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rob Woodall (R-GA) and Jodey Arrington (R-TX); for House Democrats, Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY), John Yarmuth (D-KY), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), and Derek Kilmer (D-WA); for Senate Republicans, Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), David Perdue (R-GA), James Lankford (R-OK), and Joni Ernst (R-IA); and for Senate Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).
Education Releases Regulation to Delay Special Education Rule Compliance
The Department of Education published a proposed rule for public comment on delaying the compliance date of an Obama-era regulation addressing disproportionality based on race or ethnicity with respect to the identification of children with disabilities. Under current law, all states that receive IDEA Part B funds must collect and examine data to determine if significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity exists in the state or the local educational agency for the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities. The original rule defined significant disproportionality and established a standard methodology for states to use in their examination. The rule was scheduled to become effective January 18, 2017, but was postponed until July 1, 2018. The newly released proposed rule would delay the date again until July 1, 2020 so the department may “review all of the issues raised and determine how to better serve children with disabilities.” Comments are due by May 14.
Bipartisan Opioid Bill Released
Last Tuesday a group of bipartisan senators released legislation to address the opioid epidemic, calling it a follow-up bill to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) signed into law in 2016. The CARA 2.0 Act was introduced by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA). The bill authorizes $1 billion in dedicated resources and makes policy changes including a three-day limit on initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain, allowing states to waive the limit on the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine (current cap is 100 patients), and requiring physicians and pharmacists to use their state prescription drug monitoring program. The bill text can be found here, along with a section-by-section analysis and a summary.
Justice Forms Task Force to Focus on the Prescription Opioid Crisis
On Tuesday Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of the Department of Justice Prescription Interdiction and Litigation Task Force to fight the prescription opioid crisis. According to the press release, the task force will include senior officials from across the department and will combat the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system, with a focus on manufacturing, diversion, and improper prescribing. The task force will also examine existing state and local government lawsuits against opioid manufacturers to determine what assistance, if any, federal law can provide in those lawsuits. Part of the task force’s work will involve coordination across federal agencies, to improve data sharing to better identify violations of law and patterns of fraud.
Offshore Drilling Royalty Rate Cut Proposed
Last Wednesday the Interior Department’s Royalty Policy Committee voted to send several recommendations to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, including a recommendation lowering the deep-water offshore drilling royalty rate from 18.75 percent to 12.5 percent. States, including Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, receive a share of the revenue derived from offshore activities as established in a 2006 law (P.L. 109-432). The committee says the lowered rate would bring parity with the shallow water rate and increase the competitiveness of bids. The panel also calls for conducting a lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain within two to three years, rather than the four years dictated by the budget resolution Congress adopted last year. It is unclear if and when the Interior Department will act on these recommendations. For additional information, committee meeting materials can be found here.
DOI Updates Regional Boundary Map
The Interior Department has released an update to the proposed reorganization of the department, under which the agency would have 13 unified regional office boundaries across bureaus with the objectives of reducing administrative redundancy, facilitating resource sharing, and improving coordination. The original map, unveiled in January and based on watersheds and ecological features, received pushback from some governors due to boundaries not following state lines. In the updated map, only a few states are divided into more than one region. Current regional boundaries can be found here. Some of the changes are projected to be enacted during the second half of fiscal year 2018, but full implementation is expected to take several years. A list of frequently asked questions related to the reorganization can be found here.
Section 1115 Medicaid Expansion Waivers Implementation Experiences
This study, conducted by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota for the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), seeks to understand how Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan approached the development, implementation, and management of innovative policies for their Section 1115 Medicaid expansion waivers. The study looks at how the states managed key aspects of their programs that included exchange plan premium assistance, enrollee contribution requirements, health savings accounts, healthy behavior incentives, and graduated co-payments for non-emergency use of the emergency department. SHADAC conducted interviews with 33 individuals representing current and former state agency staff and health insurance carriers in these four states to identify the steps states took to operationalize their programs.
Interactive Tool Launches Comparing State Education Funding Laws
EdBuild, a nonprofit organization that advocates for school funding reforms, has launched an updated version of their FundEd database, an interactive tool that provides state summaries of funding policies, customizable reports, and comparison features. The database includes 50-state information on funding distribution formulas, expected local share of funding, property tax limitations, and other key issues.
Recently Released Reports
Completing College: A State-Level View of Student Completion Rates
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
School Safety Policies and Programs Administered by the Federal Government: 1990-2016
Library of Congress
Jail Inmates in 2016
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Snapshots of Recent State Initiatives in Medicaid Prescription Drug Cost Control
Kaiser Family Foundation
Updating the U.S. Budget Outlook
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Economic News
GDP Increase for the Fourth Quarter of 2017 Decreases Slightly on Second Estimate
The U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis released the “second” estimate for real gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2017, showing that GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent. The second estimate is based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued in January, which showed an increase of real GDP of 2.6 percent. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent. According to the release, the increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, state and local government spending, and federal government spending that were partly offset by a negative contribution from private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The deceleration in real GDP growth in the fourth quarter reflected a downturn in private inventory investment that was partly offset by accelerations in PCE, exports, state and local government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, and federal government spending, and an upturn in residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, turned up.