Good morning. With the debt limit measure now signed into law, the House turns to debate gas stoves. A Senate bill would seek to eliminate double taxation on Taiwanese businesses operating in the U.S. House Republicans turn a critical eye on the CDC. Here’s your Federal CapWatch for Monday, June 5.
Dept Crisis Averted: Debt limit deal’s political ramifications and what it means for this year’s appropriations process.
Heating Up: House lawmakers are set to vote on bills that aim to “save our gas stoves” following reports that they cause environmental and health problems.
Taiwan Trade: Senators mark up a bill that would seek to eliminate double taxation on Taiwanese companies doing business on American soil.
CDC Critique: House Republicans take aim at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the agency prepares to bring on a new director.
White House: Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark at 1:30 p.m. Later, Biden hosts the Kansas City Chiefs football team to celebrate their Super Bowl victory.
House:Convenes at 2 p.m. to consider measures under suspension of the rules, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Senate: Not in session. Next convenes Tuesday at 3 p.m.
Committees: House Agriculture holds a hearing on Wednesday on food assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Senate Judiciary begins a hearing series on artificial intelligence and intellectual property on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hears testimony on youth mental health. Senate Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on the federal response to wildfires, including firefighter recruitment and retention.
On Thursday night, Senators approved a bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt ceiling until 2025, allowing the Treasury Department to borrow trillions of additional dollars to fulfill its obligations and prevent a financial crisis. The deal suspends the constitutional $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and imposes two years of spending caps. The Senate voted and passed the measure with only a few days to go before a deadline on Monday. The package would also recoup unused pandemic aid, move some IRS funds for other purposes, streamline energy permitting, resume student loan repayments, and toughen some work requirements for those who get public assistance.
With the agreement, the debt ceiling would be postponed after the 2024 elections until the first quarter of 2025. Suspending the debt ceiling allows Congress to specify the length of time until it needs to be raised once more, as opposed to lifting it by a precise monetary amount. In taking this stance, it can be prevented from being exploited for political gain during the elections.
Republicans first called for significant domestic spending cutbacks unrelated to defense and a 10-year budget cap at fiscal year 2022 levels. The White House suggested maintaining expenditure for two years at fiscal year 2023 levels.
The agreement keeps non-defense spending roughly constant in 2024 at current 2023 levels rather than bringing spending back to 2022 levels. After 2025, there are no budget caps; only spending goals exist. The agreement permits a modest increase in non-defense spending of around 1% for 2025.
Senator Joe Manchin has long called for reforming the nation’s permitting regulations, the White House and Senator McCarthy’s negotiating team reached an agreement on this topic. By assigning a single lead agency to oversee environmental assessment in accordance with a distinct, transparent timeframe, the provision seeks to simplify the environmental review procedure. Environmentalists have protested the energy permitting amendments because they are projected to shorten the time it takes to approve new projects. The legislation, which takes up 25 pages of the 99-page bill, also includes a clause approving all remaining permits for Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline project. Republicans are praising the deal’s modification as the National Environmental Policy Act’s first significant revision since 1982.
The agreement puts an end to the suspension of student loan payments. This means that after a more than three-year hiatus, loan holders will have to start repaying their loans after August.
Republicans’ idea, which was adopted by the White House, calls for clawing back unused COVID relief monies. Early in May marked the formal end of the COVID public health emergency. Although the precise amount is unknown, the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that there will be around $30 billion available.
For able-bodied people without minor dependents applying for entitlements and benefits, such as Medicaid, TANF, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Republicans pushed to toughen and impose job requirements. The agreement leaves Medicaid without any new job requirements. After the age of 50, there are no longer any employment requirements for SNAP recipients. That age would rise to 54 under the agreement. SNAP would also undergo interim adjustments that would remove the need for work for all homeless individuals and veterans, regardless of age.
Republicans approved legislation after gaining control of the House, and they included the same cut in the debt ceiling package that the House GOP passed last month. Republicans wanted to reduce IRS budget by nearly $71 billion over the following ten years. They even ran a campaign during the midterm elections to reduce the additional funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for tens of thousands of new agents.
The agreement completely supports the hazardous exposure fund at the president’s desired levels for the 2024 fiscal year, an increase from the present levels, as well as the medical treatment for veterans. For President Biden, who has linked his late son Beau’s exposure to carcinogen-filled fire pits to his cancer diagnosis, that has been a crucial concern.
Republicans wanted President Biden’s student debt relief to be repealed, but the legislation maintains it in place.
Republicans first called for significant domestic spending cutbacks unrelated to defense and a 10-year budget cap at fiscal year 2022 levels. The White House suggested maintaining expenditure for two years at fiscal year 2023 levels. The agreement retains spending from 2022 levels rather than bringing it down.
The deal does not include any new tax increases, as recommended by President Biden and rejected by Republicans.
The debate on gas stoves heats up this week with two GOP bills headed to the House floor. The first measure would prohibit the use of federal funds to regulate gas stoves as a banned hazardous product. The second measure would block the Energy Department’s proposed rule to establish energy efficiency standards for cooking tops and ovens from taking effect. Both bills are backed by a handful of Democrats, including Congresswoman Mary Peltola of Alaska. House Rules meets on Monday to ready the legislation for floor action Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has said it is not looking to ban gas stoves, in the wake of findings that they can increase indoor air pollutants and exacerbate respiratory ailments. The White House has also said President Joe Biden would not support a ban. Still, Republicans and some Democrats, like Senator Joe Manchin III, D-W. Va., have fiercely defended the cooktops. House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said a possible ban would be the latest in a “long line of power grabs” by the Biden administration.
More floor action: House lawmakers later in the week plan to vote on a bill that would eliminate the “Chevron deference,” the 1984 Supreme Court decision that allowed courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous law as long as it is not unreasonable, and another measure aimed at curtailing the executive branch’s power in the federal rule-making process.
Due to the two governments ‘ lack of official relations, there’s no tax treaty between the U.S. and Taiwan, but Senate Foreign Relations aims to mark up a bill this week that would stand in that gap. The bipartisan legislation would authorize the Biden administration to negotiate a tax agreement with Taiwan. The Senate panel’s markup is scheduled for Thursday. The lack of a tax treaty means businesses must pay taxes to both governments. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen says it’s a “very significant problem” for the private sector, especially given the deep economic ties with Taiwan including the island being a key provider of semiconductors for the U.S.
The bill’s backers, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said it would not only increase bilateral trade and investment but also encourage other countries “to increase their economic linkages to Taiwan.” Risch says the agreement is even more critical now given “growing aggression and coercion by China.” Senate Foreign Relations also plans to mark up a bill Thursday that would take steps to seek to eliminate China’s status as a developing nation, and another that would mandate the development of a multiagency strategy to counter an attack by China on Taiwan.
House Republicans take aim at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday criticizing the agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel hearing comes as President Joe Biden is expected to pick his replacement for outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Mandy Cohen, the former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Biden’s expected pick to head the public health agency would take the helm at a critical time.
The agency will spend this summer lobbying Congress to increase its funding and authorities via two key bills: the reauthorization of a pandemic preparedness law which expires on Sept. 30, and fiscal 2024 appropriations legislation. Over the last few years, the CDC has shifted from a rarely discussed agency to a kitchen table topic and political lightning rod. Republicans are especially wary of boosting the agency’s budget. Read more from Ariel Cohen here.
