This Week on the Hill
The House and Senate return following a one-week recess, with attention focused on the Supreme Court nomination.
The House convenes Tuesday and will hold votes through Friday on 20 bills including H.R. 50, the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2017. This bill would require agencies to propose regulatory alternatives to rules that cost over $100 million, in addition to other actions. Several committees scheduled hearings this week: the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on drug-impaired driving; the Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on security election systems; and the Appropriations Committee will mark up the fiscal 2019 Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill.
The Senate convenes today and will continue work on judicial nominations. Several committees scheduled hearings this week: the Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on low-cost federal infrastructure loans and the Finance Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on paid family leave.
Tonight at 9 p.m. ET the President is expected to announce his nomination for the Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Administration Halts ACA Risk Adjustment Payments
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced over the weekend the suspension of risk adjustment payments due to a U.S. district court ruling. CMS said conflicting judicial rulings over the fairness of the risk adjustment transfer formula has precluded the agency from collecting or making payments under the current methodology. The calculated risk adjustment transfer amounts for the 2017 benefit year are $10.4 billion, which includes transfers across catastrophic, small group, and individual non-catastrophic risk pools. Risk adjustment is one of three methods built into the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help insulate insurance companies from the requirement to accept all customers, regardless of health, without charging more to those who need substantial care. Federal health officials are required each year to calculate which insurers with relatively low-cost consumers must chip in to a fund, and which ones with more expensive customers are owed money.
Endangered Species Reauthorization Bill Introduced in Senate
Last week the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, John Barrasso (R-WY), released a discussion draft of the Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2018. The draft legislation reauthorizes the Endangered Species Act for the first time since 1992. Provisions in the bill include: elevating the role of state conservation agencies in species management; enabling states to lead recovery efforts for a listed species, including through a species’ recovery team; increasing federal consultation with local communities; and prioritizing available resources for species recovery. The bill does not create additional federal funding for conservation. The draft language can be found here and a section-by-section analysis here. Committee action is expected in the next several weeks.
Education Delays State Authorization of Distance Learning Rule
On Tuesday the Department of Education published a final rule delaying the effective date of an Obama Administration rule regulating state authorization of postsecondary distance education programs by two years. The provisions were originally slated to take effect on July 1 but will now be delayed until July 1, 2020. The original rule requires all degree-granting institutions to be authorized by each state in which the institution enrolls students, even if the institution does not have a physical presence in that state, to receive federal student aid. The notice published last week says the department will consider possible revisions to the delayed provisions through a negotiated rulemaking process.
DOJ Starts Release of FY2017 Byrne/JAG Funds
A U.S. appeals court in Chicago recently lifted a nationwide injunction against the Department of Justice (DOJ) imposing two new conditions on the fiscal year 2017 Byrne/Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) awards relating to “sanctuary cities”. With the lifting of the injunction, DOJ began notifying states and localities of their fiscal year 2017 Byrne/JAG awards. A total of $141.6 million is allocated to states for fiscal 2017.
Interior Announces PILT Funding
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recently announced that over 1,900 local governments will receive $552.8 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for 2018. According to the press release, this is the largest amount ever allocated in the program’s 40-year history. PILT payments are federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands within their boundaries. Using a formula provided by statute, the annual PILT payments to local governments are computed based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of that county or jurisdiction. A complete list of funding by state and county is available here.
CMS Releases April Medicaid Enrollment Report
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the April 2018 monthly report on state Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility and enrollment data. These data were reported by state Medicaid and CHIP agencies as part of the Medicaid and CHIP Performance Indicator process. The preliminary data show that total enrollment equaled 73.8 million. Since October 2013, enrollment in both programs increased by more than 28.5 percent, compared with the July-September 2013 baseline. States that expanded Medicaid experienced enrollment gains of more than 36.7 percent, while states that did not expand Medicaid saw increases of 11.7 percent.
Justice Adds Immigration Conditions to Four Grant Programs
The Department of Justice recently announced new immigration compliance requirements for four public safety grants for fiscal year 2018. The new conditions require recipient jurisdictions to certify that they: (1) comply with 8 USC 1373 and 1644, which promote information sharing and other cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities; (2) when practicable, provide advance notice before releasing a criminal alien from a state or local detention center; (3) permit Department of Homeland Security personnel to access criminal detention facilities in order to conduct interviews of criminal aliens in state or local custody; and (4) comply with federal criminal laws related to the harboring of illegal aliens. The new conditions apply to four grants for fiscal year 2018: Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety; Justice Accountability Initiative: Pilot Projects Using Data-Driven Systems to Reduce Crime and Recidivism; Gang Suppression Planning: Build Capacity for a Multilateral Data-Driven Strategy to Promote Public Safety; and A Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Approach to Address Gang Recruitment of Unaccompanied Alien Children program.
Recently Released Reports
The Evolution of Online Sales Taxes and What's Next for States
Tax Policy Center
South Dakota v. Wayfair: The Decision and Its Impact on States
Council of State Governments
Children's Exposure to Food Insecurity Is Still Worse Than It Was Before the Great Recession
The Hamilton Project
Implications of a Medicaid Work Requirement: National Estimates of Potential Coverage Losses
Kaiser Family Foundation
The Opioid Crisis and Economic Opportunity: Geographic and Economic Trends
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Economic News
Economy Adds 213,000 Jobs in June
New data released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 213,000 in June and the unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent. The economy has added jobs for 92 straight months, beginning in October 2010. The data also shows that in June there were 6.6 million unemployed persons, an increase of 499,000. The number of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 289,000 to 1.5 million, accounting for 23.0 percent of the unemployed. The number of reentrants to the labor force (persons who previously worked but were not in the labor force prior to beginning their job search) rose by 204,000 to 2.1 million. The labor force participation rate edged up by 0.2 percent to 62.9 percent. In June, job gains occurred in professional and business services (50,000), manufacturing (36,000), health care (25,000), construction (13,000), and mining (5,000). Retail trade lost 22,000 jobs while employment saw little or no change for transportation and warehousing, wholesale trade, information, financial activities, government, and leisure and hospitality. The average hourly earnings for all employees increased by 5 cents to $26.98 in June, following an increase of 8 cents in May. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 72 cents, or 2.7 percent.