Submitted by: Joseph Grisafi Jr
CQ ON DEFENSE – MORNING NEWS
Sept. 29, 2021 – 6:00 a.m.
Pentagon leaders say they warned Biden about Afghanistan
By Mark Satter, CQ
Good morning, and welcome to CQ Defense. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 29.
TOPLINES
1. Withdrawal woes: Pentagon leaders faced a gantlet of congressional frustration Tuesday as they tried to distribute blame for the chaotic end to America’s longest war during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
2. Hunger in the military: Provisions in both the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill would create a "basic needs allowance" aimed at ending poverty in the ranks.
3. Shutdown countdown: The Pentagon has issued planning documents in preparation for a looming government shutdown should lawmakers fail to pass a stopgap appropriations measure later this week.
FULL BRIEFING
1. Pentagon told Biden not to withdraw from Afghanistan
Pentagon leaders faced a gantlet of congressional frustration Tuesday as they tried to distribute blame for the chaotic end to America’s longest war during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said they believed the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last month was a mistake, and said they'd recommended keeping at least 2,500 troops there to both President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.
It was the military leaders' view that “the withdrawal of those forces would inevitably lead to the collapse of those Afghan forces” and the Afghan government, McKenzie explained.
On Nov. 11, 2020, two days after he fired then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Trump ordered a complete withdrawal by Jan. 15, Milley said. After pushback from military leaders, Trump rescinded it, but ordered a reduction to 2,500 troops.
Biden ordered a complete withdrawal in April, setting a target date of Sept. 11. The Pentagon pushed back again, but Biden overruled it and moved up the withdrawal to the end of August.
2. Congress is again trying to end hunger in the military
In 2016, Erika Tebbens was living outside Seattle, one of the most expensive places in America, trying to feed a family of three on her husband’s enlisted sailor's salary of less than $25,000 a year.
Tebbens said she did not qualify for Agriculture Department nutrition assistance because of a rule that military personnel include in their income any housing allowance they receive. That same rule was a big reason a Pentagon poverty-assistance program that started in 2000 failed to help many servicemembers and was discontinued in 2016.
Tebbens said she managed to afford groceries by putting bills on a credit card, borrowing money from family, and requesting grocery gift cards as presents.
Five years later, Congress is trying again to conquer poverty in the ranks. Provisions in both the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill would create a "basic needs allowance" aimed at doing that. But whether it reaches more of those in need than past efforts will depend on how lawmakers decide to treat the housing stipend.
The National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House (HR 4350) last week, as well as the version (S 2792) awaiting a Senate vote, would require that one servicemember per family receive an allowance equal to the difference between the servicemember’s salary and 130 percent of the poverty line for that member’s region and family size. It could help people in the position Tebbens found herself in, especially if the housing allowance is excluded from salary.
The House version would exclude it, but the Senate's would not.
3. Pentagon braces for possible government shutdown
The Pentagon has issued a planning document in preparation for a looming government shutdown should lawmakers fail to pass a stopgap appropriations measure by Thursday.
In what is now standard procedure for the Defense Department, guidance released Tuesday lays out how paychecks will be affected — and the lowest-paid military personnel are likely to be hurt the most.
According to the documents, all military personnel on active duty will continue working normally, but they will not be paid until Congress appropriates funds for the period of service beginning Oct. 1, after the current DOD appropriations expire.
The same applies for DOD civilians who are considered essential. Those not deemed essential will be furloughed, will not be allowed to work and will not be paid until new appropriations are passed.
However, thanks to a 2019 law enacted under former President Donald Trump, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (PL 116-1), federal workers are guaranteed back pay if they are affected by a government shutdown. That back pay, though, will not come until the appropriations do.
The release of Tuesday’s document indicates the seriousness with which government agencies are taking the likelihood of a shutdown, as partisan fighting in Congress threatens progress on a stopgap funding measure.
CQ NEWS – CQ MORNING BRIEFING
Sept. 29, 2021 – 5:30 a.m.
Today: Senate moves toward stripped-down stopgap bill
By Erin Bacon, CQ
Good morning. Here’s your CQ Morning Briefing for Wednesday, Sept. 29.
Toplines
- Only spending. Senate leaders are checking support for a stripped-down temporary spending measure.
- Holding out. Many progressive Democrats aren't budging on their hard line on infrastructure.
- Back for more. Three Pentagon leaders are testifying again on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Bonus tracks. Fintech Beat explores how to innovate the gig economy.
- On the radar. A group of lawmakers plans to unveil a bipartisan mental health and addiction agenda.
Schedules
White House: Biden will attend a memorial of former Indiana First Lady Susan Bayh at the Washington National Cathedral.
House: Convenes at noon to consider seven bills related to homeland security under suspension of the rules. The House could also consider legislation to provide funding for fiscal 2022 and legislation related to the debt limit. The House could also take postponed votes on five bills under suspension of the rules.
Senate: Convenes at 9:30 a.m. to resume consideration of Jessica Lewis' assistant secretary of State nomination, with a vote on confirmation at 10:30 a.m. The Senate will then resume consideration of Robert T. Anderson's nomination to be solicitor of the Interior Department. At 2:30 p.m., the Senate is expected to vote on motions to invoke cloture on the Anderson nomination and on Jonathan Eugene Meyer's nomination to be Homeland Security general counsel.
Committees: The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the new Texas abortion law and the role of the Supreme Court’s so-called shadow docket (10 a.m., 216 Hart).
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is holding a hearing on upgrading public health infrastructure (2 p.m., 2154 Rayburn), and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on worsening natural disaster threats (10 a.m., 342 Dirksen).
The House Rules Committee is meeting on a vehicle (S 1301) for a temporary debt limit suspension (10 a.m., H-313 Capitol).
Top defense officials are also testifying on the withdrawal from Afghanistan — more on that below.
Full briefing
1. Senate leaders test waters on separate stopgap bill
With a combined stopgap spending and debt limit suspension bill not moving forward in the Senate, Democrats in the chamber are preparing a separate temporary spending measure.
Senate leaders began checking with members of their respective parties Tuesday to see if anyone would object to quick approval of a stopgap spending bill through Dec. 3.
The package would be similar to the continuing resolution the House passed last week on a party-line vote (HR 5305) but without the debt limit suspension, according to a source familiar with the plan.
The House left room in its schedule today to vote on separate stopgap funding and debt limit bills. But Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said the House will likely wait for the Senate to send it a funding bill.
It’s still not clear how a stand-alone debt limit bill would advance in the Senate, where bipartisan support is required for the 60-vote procedural hurdle — unless unanimous consent is granted to drop that requirement.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer attempted to bring a debt limit suspension measure (S 2868) to the floor Tuesday by unanimous consent after Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen told Congress the government would be unable to pay its bills on time by Oct. 18. But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to the motion.
2. Progressives not budging on infrastructure bill stance
As Democratic leaders work to reach a new framework on a reconciliation package, many progressives say they need more concrete promises to ensure their support for the infrastructure bill that’s scheduled for a Thursday vote.
Progressives fear that voting on the infrastructure bill (HR 3684) without firmer assurances on the reconciliation package (HR 5376) would mean giving up a key bargaining tool for their priorities.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus met virtually Tuesday afternoon, and the majority of the group left committed to voting against the infrastructure bill Thursday since the reconciliation package won’t be done by then, Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said.
“This isn't about trust. It's just about verifying,” she told reporters.
House Democratic leaders said the reconciliation negotiations are at a standstill until Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona offer a topline number that they’ll support.
“They have yet to burp up a number,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., said. “So that’s a problem.”
Biden held separate meetings with the senators at the White House on Tuesday. Afterward, Manchin told reporters he did not give Biden a topline number. The president canceled a planned trip to Chicago today to be available to work on the negotiations.
3. Defense officials testify in encore hearing on Afghanistan withdrawal
House lawmakers are questioning top defense officials today on the withdrawal from Afghanistan after two of the witnesses said they disagreed with the way the U.S. left.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of the U.S. Central Command, are testifying before the House Armed Services Committee (9:30 a.m., 2118 Rayburn).
Milley and McKenzie told the Senate Armed Services panel Tuesday that they believed the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last month was a mistake, and said they'd recommended keeping at least 2,500 troops there to both President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, Andrew Clevenger writes.
It was the military leaders' view that “the withdrawal of those forces would inevitably lead to the collapse of those Afghan forces” and the Afghan government, McKenzie explained.
Their testimony contradicts Biden, who said during an interview with ABC News in July that he did not remember being advised to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
Milley also appeared to place some of the blame for the Taliban’s swift takeover on the Doha Agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban. He said committing to a withdrawal by a specific date without having certain conditions met was a mistake.
“Two presidents in a row put dates on it,” Milley said. “Don’t put dates on it. Make it conditions-based.”
On the radar: Bipartisan mental health proposal
Mental health and addiction effort: A bipartisan group of 144 House lawmakers plans to unveil their agenda today for expanding access to mental health care and combating the growing drug epidemic after overdose deaths hit new highs, CQ Roll Call has learned first exclusively.
The group plans to announce its agenda of 66 bills and one resolution during a midday news conference.
District court needs: Federal court officials for decades have asked Congress to add judges to overworked district courts, and now they say a Supreme Court decision has created a need for even more in Oklahoma.
Congress hasn’t approved reinforcements to the nation’s lower courts in a comprehensive way since 1990. But lawmakers have introduced two bipartisan bills (HR 4885, S 2535) that would create 77 new district court judgeships.
College benefit: The budget reconciliation package includes a provision that would make undocumented immigrants eligible for tuition-free community college.
Lawmakers are still hammering out the bill’s (HR 5376) final details, but the provision’s inclusion would be noteworthy if Democrats’ broader plan to create a legalization path for millions of undocumented immigrants through reconciliation is left out of the package.
CQ BUDGET TRACKER – DAILY BRIEFING
Wednesday, September 29, 2021 – 7:00 a.m.
Progressives not Budging
By David Lerman, Editor
TOPLINES
1. Progressives not budging: A bipartisan infrastructure bill could fall victim to resistance from progressives.
2. Avoiding a shutdown: Senate leaders prepared to offer a new stopgap funding bill that steers clear of a partisan debt limit fight.
3. Energy tax divide: House and Senate Democrats don’t agree on energy policy in their reconciliation package.
4. College for immigrants: The House reconciliation bill would offer tuition-free college to undocumented immigrants.
5. Rental aid clawback: The White House said it will take back funding for rental assistance that states and localities fail to spend.
FULL BRIEFING
1. Progressives not budging
House leaders are hoping to secure a bicameral agreement between moderate and progressive Democrats on a framework for their spending and tax package in the next 48 hours to ease passage of a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill.
But many progressive Democrats say the elusive framework is not enough to secure their support for the infrastructure bill (HR 3684), which is scheduled for a vote Thursday. They want more concrete assurances on how Democrats will pass the party’s larger spending and tax priorities contained in the budget reconciliation package (HR 5376) and fear that letting the infrastructure bill pass could ultimately give moderates an excuse to abandon or slow-walk negotiations on the broader measure.
Democrats are planning to move that package — which would fund climate programs and provide government assistance for child care, home-based health care, paid leave, free community college and more — through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process since Republicans oppose most of those policies. That means they can’t lose a single Democratic vote in the Senate or more than three in the House — and there have been more than a handful raising concerns.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus met Tuesday afternoon over Zoom after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a broader caucus meeting Monday night, abandoned her commitment to them that the House would not pass the infrastructure bill before the reconciliation package. The majority of the group left their meeting committed to voting against the infrastructure bill Thursday since the reconciliation package won’t be done by then, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal said.
“This isn't about trust. It's just about verifying,” the Washington Democrat told reporters.
Jayapal said a majority of her 95-member caucus still plans to oppose the infrastructure bill, and the number “might be growing.”
House Democratic leaders acknowledged Tuesday that reconciliation negotiations were at a standstill until centrist Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia indicate what topline amount of spending and offsetting tax increases they will support. Both senators have said the $3.5 trillion topline that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Budget Committee Democrats and the White House agreed to earlier this summer is too high.
President Joe Biden held separate meetings with Sinema and Manchin at the White House Tuesday. Afterward, Manchin told reporters he did not give Biden a topline number.
"There was no commitments made,” Manchin said. “No commitments, from that standpoint, just good negotiations and talking about the needs of our country."
The bottom line: With progressives not budging, the infrastructure package is teetering on the edge.
2. Avoiding a shutdown
Senate Democrats on Tuesday began preparing to pass a stopgap funding measure to keep the government running separately from a debt limit suspension, after Republicans blocked the latter for the second time in as many days.
As a partisan fiscal standoff deepened, Democrats said they were determined to avoid a shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Friday. To that end, Senate leaders began checking with members of their respective parties to see if anyone would object to quick approval of a stopgap spending bill through Dec. 3.
The package would be similar to the continuing resolution the House passed last week on a party-line vote (HR 5305) but without the debt limit suspension, according to a source familiar with the plan. The House-passed measure did not include $1 billion requested for Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system after progressives protested the provision.
But the House quickly passed a separate bill to fund Iron Dome (HR 5323) by the lopsided margin of 420-9. And Senate leaders were hoping to expedite passage of that bill as soon as this week.
"Hopefully we'll get enough votes to get a [continuing resolution] passed," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. "And then hopefully the debt ceiling will be increased. We've got to pay our bills, for God's sakes. This is stupid."
House leaders, meanwhile, said they could take up separate bills to suspend the debt limit and provide stopgap funding as early as Wednesday. The House Rules Committee was scheduled to take up a bill Wednesday (S 1301) to suspend the debt limit through Dec. 16, 2022 (see Budget Bulletin below).
But Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said the House was likely to wait for the Senate to send it a stopgap funding bill instead of trying to pass its own measure, "because then, when we get it, we can send it right to the president."
The change in Senate strategy came after Democrats made their second unsuccessful attempt to suspend the debt limit this week.
3. Energy tax divide
House and Senate Democrats are moving further away from each other on energy-related provisions of their sprawling budget reconciliation bill at a critical moment for Biden's domestic policy agenda.
The latest sign of trouble came Monday night when a trio of Texas Democrats released a letter asking party leaders to drop from the budget bill new taxes and fees they say would harm U.S. oil and gas producers. The letter from Reps. Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vela also targets a linchpin of Democrats' climate policies: a "clean electricity performance" program to reward utilities that increase their output from renewable resources each year and penalize those that don't.
The Texans asked Democratic leaders to “reconsider some of the revenue raising provisions of this otherwise sound and critical effort,” and said they’re concerned about provisions that would “jeopardize U.S. energy independence, harm American jobs, raise energy costs, and increase global emissions.”
The new letter follows another from those three plus four other Texas Democrats earlier this month expressing similar concerns. The group includes three of the most vulnerable party members in next year's midterms: Gonzalez, Colin Allred and Lizzie Fletcher; they're among 32 lawmakers singled out for special help by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., didn't include specific tax increases on oil and gas companies that Biden proposed, in a nod to moderates in his chamber. But environmental groups and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have been pushing to dig deeper into the oil industry's pockets for revenue.
Neal's office on Monday blasted out statements from various groups backing the Ways and Means bill. But there were hints of discontent in some of the statements.
"While this bill makes the tax code more progressive and cuts some fossil fuel subsidies, there is more the Senate must do to hold polluters accountable," reads a statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council's John Bowman. "It's time to end a century of handouts to the oil and gas industry — and invest in a clean future.”
4. College for immigrants
The Democratic reconciliation measure includes a provision that would make undocumented immigrants eligible for tuition-free community college, a change that could prove significant if attempts at broader immigration overhaul fall short.
The House bill’s higher education plan, which would provide two years of tuition-free community college through state grants, would make students eligible regardless of “citizenship, alienage or immigration status.”
Lawmakers have yet to agree on a compromise package that could win bicameral support, but the provision’s inclusion would be noteworthy if Democrats’ broader plan to create a legalization path for millions of undocumented immigrants through reconciliation is left on the cutting room floor.
The Senate parliamentarian ruled earlier this month that the original proposal violated Senate procedural rules about what can be included in reconciliation bills, and although senators will soon present alternatives, the viability of that plan is far from clear.
“Any expanded access for undocumented students is significant, especially as we consider the possibility that not everyone might qualify for the immigration provisions that do make it into a final version of reconciliation,” said José Muñoz, national communications manager at the immigration youth advocacy group United We Dream.
Republicans, whose support is not needed to move the reconciliation bill, staunchly oppose the plan and say taxpayers should not be responsible for funding the education of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
5. Rental aid clawback
The Treasury Department will soon use the threat of clawbacks to make state and local governments speed up the distribution of pandemic rental relief, presidential adviser Gene Sperling said Tuesday.
Beginning on Thursday, the Treasury Department can claw back emergency rental assistance funds from states, cities and counties that have spent less than 65 percent of their allocation from the $25 billion Congress provided in December (PL 116-260). Congress provided an additional $21.6 billion in March (PL 117-2) that is not subject to the Sept. 30 deadline.
As of Aug. 31, state and local governments collectively had spent only $7.7 billion, according to the data the Treasury Department released this month.
Sperling, who is the White House coordinator of the pandemic relief money, told housing advocates on a video call organized by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that the department would use clawbacks to encourage state and local governments to allow tenants to self-certify rather than require them to document that they meet income requirements. Programs are allowed to do so under Treasury guidance, but few do.
“Now we have the ability to say, if you're a slow performer, there are consequences,” Sperling said. "The goal is to use this to get better performance and effectiveness for the people who are being underserved.”
On the state level, only New Jersey, Virginia and the District of Columbia had spent more than 65 percent of their December emergency rental assistance funds by the end of August. Texas came close, spending 63 percent of that money, according to the Treasury data. Twelve states spent less than 10 percent.
QUOTABLE
“I actually think the House did a lot of things that were pretty thoughtful [on international taxes], which is hard for a senator to acknowledge,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
BUDGET BULLETIN
Here's the rundown of all budget and appropriations activity remaining for this week:
- Likely House floor action on a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget reconciliation package.
- Likely House and Senate floor action on a fiscal 2022 continuing resolution.
Wednesday, Sept. 29:
- House Rules Committee action on bill to suspend the debt limit (S 1301), 10 a.m., H-313 Capitol.
Thursday, Sept. 30:
- House floor vote on bipartisan infrastructure bill (HR 3684).
- House Financial Services Committee hearing on Treasury and Federal Reserve management of pandemic relief programs, 10 a.m., 2128 Rayburn, financialservices.house.gov.
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