A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/600489
CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE: The House and Senate were in session last week. The Senate is in sessio n this week (Nov. 9) , while the Hou se will recess for the Veterans Day holiday. There is already talk of lawmakers cutting the calendar short and heading home for the holidays early, assuming they can agree on spending legislation before the December 11th deadline. More on that below. CLOSE WATCH ON HIGHWAY BILL : L ast week, the House passed its version of the long - term surface transportation bill (H.R. 22) following three days of floor debate on 126 amendments made in order by the Rules Committee. There w ere over 300 amendments offered by lawmakers, making for a very busy week for Government Affairs staff. Newly - elected Speaker Ryan has vowed for a more open process in the House to appease more conservative members, meaning members now have more of an oppo rtunity to offer almost unlimited amounts of amendments (and even those that are not necessarily related to the legislation at hand) to bills that comes to the House floor for consideration. As with any legislation that sees a more open process, GA staff f ollowed the highway bill very closely. Harmful amendments avoided: GA staff worked to comb through the hundreds of amendments offered to the highway bill to ensure there was nothing offered that would be harmful to NATCA members. As with any legislation t hat faces hours of debate and votes on the floor, especially appropriations bills, which always have an open process, GA staff closely reviewed every amendment that was offered to the legislation. In these cases, GA staff works with leadership, as well as relevant committee staff, to stay on top of the many amendments that get filed. These types of bills that are controversial are often considered on the floor for hours on end, going late into the night and sometimes into the early hours of the morning. Dep ending on the "rule" that determines how the bill is considered on the floor, amendments are allowed to be offered in real time with no advanced warning. One prime example of this was in June 2014 when GA successfully defeated the Gingrey anti - official tim e amendment after many hours of discussions with Republican and Democratic leadership, as well as Rules Committee staff. To remain prepared for these jam - packed floor debates and votes, GA staff spends many hours visiting with staff and members of Congress throughout the year to remind everyone about the issues that are important to NATCA. Next steps for highway bill: Following House passage, the Highway bill is now in a bicameral conference to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions . Lawmakers are facing a tight timeline and have only until November 20 to finalize the long - term surface transportation proposal, which is when the current extension expires. If conference negotiations take too long, another extension will be needed. Unti l the highway bill is completed, the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee cannot move forward with FAA Reauthorization. See below for additional details. GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN STILL POSSIBLE : Even though the President signed into law the b road deal that set budget levels for the next two years and lifted the debt ceiling until 2017, there is still talk of a possible government shutdown. As a reminder, government funding expires on December 11, and spending legislation will still need to be enacted to avoid a government shutdown. Last week, it looked like negotiations were headed for failure because Democrats felt that Republicans were giving preference to defense appropriations, and would only move continuing resolutions (CRs) for all other appropriations bills, causing Democrats to boycott consideration of appropriations legislation in the chamber. However, in a quick turn of events, the Senate began