Update from Washington, D.C. 02/15/2013
On February 12, President Obama delivered his State of the Union
address before a joint session of Congress. The president
highlighted the need to act on several major issues, including
immigration reform, climate change, and gun control. President
Obama also stressed, among other things, the need for action on
the looming across-the-board spending cuts that are set to begin
on March 1. He called on Congress to avert the budget reductions
with a blend of targeted spending cuts and new revenue.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) delivered the GOP’s official response
in which he criticized the president’s plan to replace the
sequester cuts. He also spoke about the need for a balanced
budget amendment and addressed the importance of protecting the
integrity of entitlement programs, such as Medicare. For his
part, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) expressed similar
concerns. In fact, Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-KY) have asked the administration to provide
Congress with a detailed list of budget reductions and
entitlement reforms that the administration would
support.
In a related development, House appropriators are finalizing a
stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown after
March 27. The measure, which could see action in the coming
weeks, will likely continue the current level of spending through
the remainder of the fiscal year. It would not, however, address
sequestration, specifying that the $85 billion in reductions for
fiscal year 2012 would go forward unless it is separately turned
off.
Responding to President Obama’s call for action on climate
change, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
unveiled legislation on February 14 that would impose a fee on
carbon and methane emissions. The funds generated from the fees
would be used for a variety of activities including efficiency
and renewable-energy technologies, worker-training and transition
programs, as well as debt reduction. Boxer, who chairs the
Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, has vowed to move
the climate legislation through her committee by summer. This
will be no easy task, however, as Ranking Member David Vitter
(R-LA) and other prominent senators from both parties, have
expressed opposition to a carbon tax.
Aside from climate change legislation, Chairwoman Boxer also
announced that the EPW committee would consider legislation as
early as March to reauthorize the Water Resources and Development
Act (WRDA). Senator Boxer’s current WRDA draft bill includes a
section on levee vegetation, supported by CSAC, that would
require the Secretary of the Army to undertake a comprehensive
review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ levee vegetation
removal policy. For his part, House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) also
intends to pursue a WRDA reauthorization measure, but he has not
established a timeline for his committee.
In other developments, the Senate approved legislation on
February 12 that would reauthorize for five years the Violence
Against Women Act. Specifically, the bill (S 47) would renew
programs aimed at combating domestic violence, sexual assault,
and stalking. It should be noted that the House and Senate passed
competing reauthorization bills in the 112th Congress, but
negotiations broke down late in the year.
Finally, President Obama recently nominated Sally Jewell, the CEO
of outdoor gear retailer REI, to be his next Interior Secretary.
Jewell is the first woman Obama has recommended to fill a
second-term department-head opening.