Posts in category: Uncategorized

Congress on Wednesday sent a three-month spending bill to President Biden for his signature, averting a shutdown until after the election. 

The passage of the continuing resolution, which will keep agencies afloat through Dec. 20, sets up a new fight over government funding during the lame duck session of Congress just before Christmas. The House and Senate—which separately approved the CR on Wednesday—remain far divided on the path forward for full-year appropriations, but avoided forcing agencies to shutter on Oct. 1. 

Congressional leaders announced a bipartisan breakthrough over the weekend after House Republicans for weeks suggested they would not back a short-term funding measure unless congressional Democrats and the White House agreed to certain partisan demands. The measure won broad bipartisan support in both chambers despite opposition from dozens of Republicans, passing the House in a 341-82 vote, and avoided any efforts to slow the bill down in the Senate.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreeing to a stopgap CR came over the objections of former President Trump, who instructed Republicans to reject any funding deal if it did not include legislative provisions to address his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voting from non-citizens.

The House voted last week on a six-month CR that included the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, but more than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in defeating it. Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that there was “no daylight” between him and Trump.

“I’m not defying President Trump,” Johnson said. “We’re getting our job done.” He added it would be “political malpractice” to allow a shutdown so close to a presidential election.

The CR will largely continue agency funding at their fiscal 2024 levels, though it includes some “anomalies,” including $231 million to the U.S. Secret Service for its protective mission. The agency has faced additional scrutiny and pressure to ramp up its efforts after two failed assassination attempts on Trump in recent months.

The measure also prevents agencies from furloughing or terminating employees due to budget shortfalls, includes additional funds for the Office of Personnel Management to set up a new health benefits program for the U.S. Postal Service and adds spending for transition activities at the White House, General Services Administration and the National Archives and Records Administration.

By voting on Wednesday and avoiding delays, lawmakers can now head back to their districts and states through the election. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised his colleagues for acting with days to spare, an unusual feat in recent shutdown politics. 

“Americans can breathe easy that because both sides have chosen bipartisanship, Congress is getting the job done,” Schumer said. “We will keep the government open. We will prevent vital government services from needlessly coming to a halt. We’ll give appropriators more time to fully fund the government before the end of the year.”

When Congress returns after the election, focus will turn to approving full-year appropriations bills. The House has passed five of the 12 required annual spending bills, though it has done so in party-line votes and at spending levels below what Republicans and the White House previously agreed to as part of a two-year budget deal. The Senate has passed 11 of its 12 bills using higher funding totals in overwhelmingly bipartisan votes at the committee level, though none have been approved on the floor.

Johnson expressed confidence he would avoid putting all of the spending bills together in one omnibus package. In March, when Congress finally passed fiscal 2024 appropriations, the measures were split into two “minibuses.” 

“There will be no Christmas omnibus,” Johnson said, adding he does not want “any buses” that lump spending bills together. “We’ll deal with that in the lame duck.” 

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, committed only to pushing full-year spending bills through before the new pre-Christmas deadline. 

“There are so many urgent national priorities that still must be addressed in our full-year funding bills,” Murray said. “I will be working closely with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure we get the job done before the end of the year.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democratic appropriator in the House, suggested Congress would inevitably wind up funding agencies at the levels set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the budget deal Biden previously struck with House Republicans. 

“We know where we must end up,” DeLauro said from the House floor Wednesday. “It is my hope this bill will provide the bipartisan momentum to arrive there.”

Finger pointing and confusion over responsibilities mired the U.S. Secret Service’s preparations for former President Donald Trump’s July rally that led to an assassination attempt, according to a new, bipartisan congressional report, though the agency admitted its failures allowed the deadly incident to unfold. 

USSS personnel declined to identify any individuals within their agency who shouldered the blame, telling the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee staff who compiled the interim report all key decisions were made together by various groups of people. They noted their communication was poor, while the committee flagged inadequate communication among federal, state and local law enforcement and failures to ensure proper teams and equipment were in place prior to Trump’s speech. 

Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe—who took over for Kimberly Cheatle after the then-director resigned following the incident—previously told Congress his agency has already implemented reforms to address its shortcomings during the July Trump rally, but the committee put forward a series of additional changes USSS should implement. Those included legislation to require more defined roles for Secret Service personnel, better coordination with state and local partners and the designation of a single individual to approve all operational plans prior to a protection event. 

At the rally in Butler, Pa., during which Thomas Crooks fired eight shots from a nearby roof that killed one rally attendee and injured three people, including Trump, there was no such individual who approved the plans. USSS sent seven advance agents to the farm in Butler and in the week leading up to the rally they had meetings and a walk through with state and local personnel. The various law enforcement groups did not share documents or written operational plans in the days prior to the event. 

“I don’t approve anything,” USSS’ senior advance agent told the committee, explaining he simply synthesized information and passed it along. 

He went on to say no one person in particular was responsible for securing the American Glass Research roof from which Crooks shot. 

“There’s no specific,” the agent said. “There were several different plans in place, different pieces of the puzzle from the advance that all had their own stake in making sure that that building was not accessible.” 

Anthony Guglielmi, a USSS spokesman, said the agency has reviewed the report, which aligned with its own findings and is “essential to ensuring that what happened on July 13 never happens again.” 

“The U.S. Secret Service has implemented changes to our protective operations, including elevating the protective posture for our protectees and bolstering our protective details as appropriate in order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for those we protect,” Guglielmi said, adding Trump is currently receiving the “highest level of protection” the agency can provide. 

Local Butler police said they warned USSS they did not have the manpower to secure the AGR building during a meeting leading up to Trump’s rally, though USSS officials recalled the meeting differently. 

Ultimately, Pennsylvania State Police provided 30 officers to USSS, more than the 10-15 it originally estimated it could make available. Butler County sent three sniper teams and approximately 20-25 officers. Secret Service denied a request to have counter unmanned aircraft systems capabilities on sight. The advance team never requested a separate unit to patrol the outer perimeter of the event space. 

Local law enforcement first observed an individual with a rangefinder and notified USSS personnel 27 minutes before Crooks took his first shot. Eight Secret Service officials were aware of the sighting seven minutes later. They were aware someone was on the roof two minutes before the shooting, and an agency counter sniper saw local law enforcement rushing toward the area with their guns drawn just before Crooks fired. That individual said it did not occur to him to alert Trump’s detail on the ground of what he saw. Local police were searching for a specific individual with a rangefinder but lost track of him prior to the shooting, which the Secret Service did not learn of until after Crooks fired on Trump. 

Secret Service and Butler police maintained two separate communications centers and they spoke on two separate radio channels. To speak to each other, they had to use cell phones. The committee found USSS and local law enforcement did not communicate in real time. 

“Clearly, there were communication gaps that day that led to this failure,” assistant director of the USSS Office of Protective Operations told the committee. “And if those communication gaps had been mitigated, information could have been passed in a more timely fashion that would’ve avoided that failure.”

Guglielmi said USSS is working to address those gaps. 

“We are also diligently examining long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with our federal, state and local partners to make sure our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless,” he said. 

USSS staff and local law enforcement pointed the finger at each other over who was responsible for securing the AGR building from which Crooks shot. Local sniper teams said they were instructed to focus primarily on threats from the crowd rather than the surrounding areas. 

Secret Service does not typically send counter snipers to events with former presidents or presidential candidates before they have officially become a major party nominee—as was the case with Trump at that time—but opted to do so for the Butler rally because of a “credible threat” against Trump. That threat was not related to Crooks specifically. The senior agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office told the committee he was not aware of the threat and would have assigned additional personnel if he had been. 

The Senate committee called on USSS to improve its coordination with state and local personnel, including by reviewing all operational plans and ensure a shared understanding of responsibilities. All parties should have smooth communications, the panel said, and allocation of resources should be based on threat level rather than the title of the protectee. 

Earlier this month, a second would-be assassin was located by Secret Service on a golf course where Trump was playing. Prosecutors are seeking to charge Ryan Routh, the alleged gunman, of an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. 

While Secret Service has not cited insufficient resources as a cause for its failures, a top official recently said it has “long been the case” his agency is stretched too thin. The stopgap funding bill set to reach Biden’s desk this week would provide USSS with a $231 million funding surge through Dec. 20. The committee called on Congress to “evaluate USSS budget and resources” going forward. 

The House of Representatives on Monday sent to the president’s desk legislation that would require federal agencies to publish their guidance on using excess personal property, which refers to non-real estate items like office equipment and furniture, motor vehicles as well as specialized equipment. 

Agencies already must consider acquiring excess personal property before purchasing new items. Besides shipping and transportation costs, agencies usually don’t have to pay for excess property from another federal agency. 

However the Government Accountability Office reported in 2022 that from fiscal years 2016 to 2020, out of $32.8 billion worth of reported excess property, agencies only obtained $3.9 billion worth of items. 

“GAO’s findings indicate that the guidance in the existing Federal Management Regulation alone may not be sufficient,” said Rep. Jake LaTurner, R-Kansas, during House floor debate on the bill. “With better direction from Congress, agencies can be more efficient in leveraging excess personal property to meet their needs and ultimately save taxpayer dollars.” 

Specifically, the bill, which the chamber passed by voice vote, would require the agency guidance to designate an employee to search through available excess property for items that could meet the agency’s needs. 

“These excess items could be transferred to other federal agencies and departments, distributed to a state or local government or even sold to the public,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., during floor debate. “It shouldn’t just be sitting there.” 

The measure also would make public reports that agencies are mandated to annually submit about the amount of excess property they possess and direct the GAO to report on how often agencies acquire items that were manufactured by a Chinese entity.

Requirements in the bill would sunset after five years. The Senate passed the legislation by unanimous consent in late 2023.   

The General Services Administration leads an interagency committee on property management that regularly assesses personal property regulations and guidance. 

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that in 2025, a slate of insurers participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will begin offering expanded coverage of fertility services, covering upwards of $25,000 in two nationwide plans.

“Today, the Office of Personnel Management is announcing a significant expansion for IVF coverage options for federal employees and their families in 2025,” said Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council. “In this year’s open enrollment period, regardless of where they live, federal employees will be able to choose multiple plan options with comprehensive IVF care. One in five women struggle with infertility, and many rely on IVF. These are basic issues of reproductive freedom.”

Beginning this year, OPM requires all insurance carriers in the federal government’s employer-sponsored health care program to cover artificial insemination and related drugs, as well as the drugs associated with up to three in vitro fertilization cycles per year. But those drug benefits only account for 35% of the out-of-pocket costs of 15,000 to $30,000 associated with a single cycle of IVF.

As a result, federal employee groups and Democratic lawmakers have been urging OPM to ramp up its coverage requirements for fertility treatments, particularly in light of an Alabama Supreme Court decision that briefly halted the procedures’ availability in the state.

Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver acknowledged the federal workforce’s hunger for access to insurance programs that cover IVF as one of the drivers behind the effort to boost coverage for the procedures. OPM officials said that while the agency has not changed its coverage requirements, it was able to secure the expanded benefits through the annual negotiation process with carriers.

“FEHBP is vital to OPM’s mission to attract and retain top talent into the federal workforce, and there’s no question that offering fertility benefits will allow us to do just that,” Shriver said. “We recently released the Federal Employee Benefits Survey, and two-thirds of those surveyed agreed that fertility benefits should be available through FEHB plans. That number increases to 76% of people when you focus on those born after 1981, who are the most likely to use those benefits.”

When the federal government’s annual Open Season period, during which federal workers may change their enrollments in FEHBP, opens this fall, both Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Government Employees Health Association each will offer a nationally available plan option that includes $25,000 in IVF benefits, on top of the required coverage for three cycles of related drugs.

Additionally, there will be one or more additional options from regional carriers in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some of these plans offer even more benefits, with no limits either in terms of cost or the number of cycles that will be covered in a year. Across the country, 25 carriers offer a total of 45 plans with IVF benefits above OPM’s requirements.

Legislation to help close a loophole that prevents new veterans from getting their emergency care coverage reimbursed by the Veterans Affairs Department is back on Capitol Hill, six months after it was dropped from the fiscal 2024 supplemental funding package that included aid for Ukraine and Israel.  

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., introduced the Removing Extraneous Loopholes Insuring Every Veteran Emergency, or RELIEVE, Act on Sept. 6, intending to correct a current gap in insurance coverage for veterans.

Under the current law, veterans must receive health services at a VA facility within the last two years to be covered under the department’s community care protocol, where veterans can seek health care from community providers when the VA can’t provide it. 

However, for newly enrolled veterans, an initial VA appointment could take more than a month to procure, potentially leaving them without emergency care coverage.

The RELIEVE Act aims to get around that by extending coverage for non-VA emergency care for 60 days to give newly enrolled veterans time to schedule their first VA facility appointment. 

McMorris Rodgers said in a March 2023 statement that she first introduced the bill in February 2023, after an Eastern Washington veteran brought the issue to the congresswoman. The newly enrolled veteran suffered a heart attack days before her first VA doctor’s appointment and went to an emergency room for care.

The VA denied her emergency Care in the Community claims, even though she informed the department of the care within 72 hours, per VA rules, because she had not gained coverage by first going to a VA facility.

“The only thing scarier for a veteran than a trip to the emergency room is finding out the VA won’t cover the cost because of a loophole in the system. Closing this coverage gap and ensuring veterans can receive care when and where they need it most is critical,” the congresswoman said in a 2023 statement. “The passage of this bill is a step in the right direction and brings us closer than ever before to achieving that goal.” 

McMorris Rodgers’ first attempt at the bill later became the legislative vehicle for the fiscal 2024 national security supplemental package. However, its original intent was dropped on amendment once it reached the Senate.

The new version — co-sponsored again by Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., and Chris Pappas, D-N.H. — has been referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, where it had previously secured support from Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill. 

A bipartisan group of senators announced Tuesday that they have introduced legislation that would create a new publicly available database tracking the status of the president’s nominees to serve in the more than 1,300 Senate-confirmed political positions throughout the federal government.

The Improving Senate Confirmation and Vacancy Oversight Act (S. 5133), introduced last week by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., would require the Government Accountability Office to develop a new public “data dashboard” to track Senate-confirmed positions, as well as data from the Office of Personnel Management’s PLUM list of all political appointments.

Since the Senate now spends more time voting on a president’s judicial and executive branch nominees than it does considering legislation, according to the Partnership for Public Service, the lawmakers said the public needs better insight into the confirmation process, particularly for sub-cabinet level appointments. A better understanding of the process, along with real-time data on the president’s slate of nominees, could lead to reforms to get them placed more quickly.

“The Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on presidential appointees, but unfortunately the cumbersome confirmation process and growing number of nominees is cutting into the amount of time Congress can devote to moving legislation that benefits the American people,” Peters said in a statement. “My bipartisan bill will ensure there is more transparency and accountability in the nomination and confirmation process, help identify and address the backlog of vacant positions waiting to be filled, and enhance the Senate’s ability to swiftly process pending confirmations.”

Federal employees have borne the brunt of the arduous Senate confirmation process in more ways than one. First, extended vacancies at leadership positions within an agency hamstrings the agency’s ability to meet its mission—acting officials often have less authority than their Senate confirmed counterparts. And secondly, both the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears appeals of adverse personnel actions across the government, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which enforces federal sector labor law, have endured years-long vacancies atop their organizational charts that have hampered up the agencies’ ability to issue decisions.

“Instead of confronting the real economic and national security problems facing America, much of the Senate’s time is taken up by confirming a seemingly endless number of political appointees,” Lankford said. “This bill will allow us to identify and address the causes for chronically vacant positions and ultimately free up floor time for the Senate to debate the issues Oklahomans care about.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which Peters serves as chairman, will consider the bill in a markup hearing Wednesday.