The House of Representatives passed a massive $400 billion budget agreement early Friday intended to end a partial federal government shutdown. The lawmakers voted 240-186 to approve the accord that now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature. However, it only funds the government through March 23.
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The top Senate leaders have announced an agreement on a two year budget deal that would provide defense and domestic programs with large spending increases. Majority leader Mitch McConnell and the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer spoke to fellow senators about the deal on Tuesday as members of Congress sought to avert another government shutdown.
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Moments after the Senate Democrats successfully blocked the passage of a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the middle of next month, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released a scathing statement, squarely blaming Democrats for their obstructionism. “Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” Sanders began in a fiery missive posted on social media. “Tonight, they put policies over national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans,” the statement continued. “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators. When Democrats start paying out armed forces and first responders we will reopen negotiation on immigration reform. During this politically manufactured Schumer Shutdown, the President and his Administration will fight for and protect the American people.” At issue is the Democrats demand for a “DACA fix,” which is problematic for two reasons. First, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is not a legal program at all. It is a procedure that was described by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in a 2012 memo. The procedure was ‘blessed’ by the Obama administration and implemented under…
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By Robert Romano There is a good chance that Senate Democrats will attempt to filibuster whatever 2018 spending bill comes up next week, with funding running out on Jan. 19. The result will be a partial government shutdown. Congressional Democrats complain that President Donald Trump is not playing along with their desire to permanently legalize illegal immigrants from former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Democrats still want amnesty, and expect to get it in return for almost nothing. President Trump, for his part, has been adamant on his terms for a deal, calling for an end to chain migration, the visa lottery and he wants long-term funding for the southern border wall. At a Jan. 8 speech to the American Farm Bureau in Nashville, Tenn. Trump promised, “We are going to end chain migration. We are going to end the lottery system, and we are going to build the wall.” These battle lines were more than on display at a bipartisan meeting at the White House with members of the House and Senate on Jan. 9. So far, Trump is sticking to his guns. And he should. The President has the upper hand. Democrats possess no majorities in the…
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In an op-ed appearing on FoxNews.com, Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) announced Wednesday she will step down as House Budget Committee Chair in time for the Republican House Leadership to select a new Chair in January. While she will no longer be in that leadership role, she will continue to serve in Congress as she campaigns to be Tennessee’s next Governor. “What a difference a year makes,” she begins: Twelve months ago, the country was ending one of the most fiscally irresponsible presidencies of the modern age. Now we’re wrapping up a year of bold fiscal leadership from President Trump and conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. I became chairman of the House Budget Committee one year ago and have been proud to serve in that role along with our new president. He has pushed an agenda of action – responsible budgeting, repealing ObamaCare’s worst mandates, and aggressive tax-cutting to get our economy going. This has been exactly the kind of work I came to Congress to do and we have done it. But my heart has always been at home. This why today I’m announcing that I will now step down as chairman of the House Budget Committee, while continuing…
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President Trump pressured congressional Democrats Saturday to drop their demands for amnesty for young illegal immigrants as part of a year-end spending deal, saying their insistence on protecting illegals is part of a liberal mindset that led to the death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco. “Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress not only oppose our efforts to…
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The leader of the U.S. Senate’s Republican majority on Sunday dismissed the possibility that the government could shut down later in the week when funding runs out. “Look, there’s not going to be a government shutdown. It’s just not going to happen,” Senator Mitch McConnell told ABC’s “This Week.” …
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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer predicted Tuesday that Dreamers will get permanent legal status in the end-of-year spending deal Congress is working on, and said President Trump will have to sign it. “We feel very strongly that DACA must pass and must pass by Dec. 31,” Mr. Schumer told reporters at the Capitol. “We think…
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For the first time in nearly a decade, the House and the Senate has passed a budget – albeit without much help from Democrats. The move sets the stage for a massive tax reform package, the largest since President Ronald Reagan’s overhaul in 1986. President Trump took the opportunity to offer his thanks for a job well done this morning to Tennessee’s own Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06), who serves as the powerful House Budget Committee Chair. Diane Black of Tennessee, the highly respected House Budget Committee Chairwoman, did a GREAT job in passing Budget, setting up big Tax Cuts — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017 To which, Ms. Black replied: Thank you for your support @realDonaldTrump! Great working with you — big tax cuts next! #MAGA https://t.co/AV7RX4CgS1 — Diane Black (@DianeBlackTN) October 27, 2017 Representative Black – who is running to replace the termed-out Governor Bill Haslam – released a short statement reiterating her strong support of President Trump’s agenda, and her commitment to bringing the same kind of ‘America First’ principles to Tennessee, should she be elected. It reads: This morning, President Trump praised Diane Black for her work on the budget and paving the way for tax cuts…
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Senate lawmakers voted Thursday afternoon to advance a bill that would provide emergency relief funding to the victims of Hurricane Harvey and would temporarily raise the debt ceiling and fund the government through mid-December. Lawmakers voted 80-17 in favor of sending the bill back to the House for renegotiations. The Senate’s vote comes off the heels…
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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday that Congress will blow past the Sept. 30 deadline for approving new funding for 2018, saying the government will need to operate off stop-gap spending for several months. Mr. Ryan also insisted Congress will meet its deadline to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit, saying he was “really not…
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Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Larry Martin reported this week that May revenues exceeded the month’s budget of $1 billion by $53.1 million. That makes nine out of ten months in the 2016-17 accrual year where collections exceeded the budget and the prior year’s collections. Year-to-date over collection of taxes is now up to $677.6 million. The most controversial and predominant legislation this past session was the gas-tax-increasing IMPROVE Act, with a large part of the arguments by proponents focusing on the “user fee” that they claim is diminishing due to increased vehicle fuel efficiency. Before the gas and diesel tax increases go into effect on July 1, fuel tax collections for the year are $44.3 million above the budget and $18 million ahead of last year’s collections. The Highway Fund in total, which, in addition to the fuel tax, is funded by some but not all potential “user fees,” is 4.83 percent over budget and 1.88 percent ahead of this time last year. So far this year, that’s an additional $28 million for road projects, a month before Tennesseans start paying the four-cent per gallon gas and six-cent per gallon diesel tax increases. The data tables are available on…
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Commentary by Steve Gill With $2 billion in surplus and recurring revenue at their disposal this past fiscal year the Tennessee legislature jammed through a $300 million tax increase on fuel that provides a windfall to their road contractor and lobbyist buddies. This is the same Republican super-majority that has increased spending a BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR the past 7 years while patting themselves on the back for being “fiscally conservative.” They are the same politicians currently running around the state claiming they passed the “largest tax cut in history” without mentioning that the overwhelming majority of the “cuts” go to about 25 of the largest corporations in Tennessee. Is it really any big surprise that the bulk of the “cuts” went to some of the largest spenders on lobbyists and providers of donations to legislators? Perhaps it was just an amazing coincidence. All the talk of “tax cuts” is just to distract voters from the truth: they raised fuel taxes by over $300 MILLION per year on families. Oh, they will say, but we cut the food tax. The food tax cuts amount to about $55 million per year, meaning the net loss to taxpayers, when balanced against…
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MOUNT JULIET, Tennessee — At the Wilson County Conservative Republicans meeting Saturday, guest speaker Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) said of the battle over the 2018 state budget, “If everybody does stand together, government has to come down to our level.” Matheny was referring to the stand-off that occurred in the House of Representatives when he added a constitution-breaking amendment to the budget, which prompted House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) to come down on the House floor and sit next to Matheny in Rep. Mark Pody’s (R-Lebanon) adjacent empty seat. Alluding to Pody’s absence that day preaching the eulogy at a funeral, “The seat was empty next to me, and believe me, I felt it,” said Matheny. The monthly meeting, according to host Sen. Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), started seven to eight years ago and was attended this month by a crowd of about 40 overflowing the room at the Providence location of Logan’s Roadhouse in Mt. Juliet. Pody introduced Matheny at the Saturday meeting, saying that sitting next to Judd Matheny was the only request he has ever made of Speaker Harwell when he came to the House and she asked what Pody wanted for a wide range of…
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During his presentation of the budget bills during the House floor session Friday State Representative and Chairman of the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee, Charles Sargent (R-Franklin) misrepresented the Copeland Cap constitutional amendment several times. Charles Sargent has served in the Tennessee House since 1997, became a member of the House Finance, Ways & Means Committee in 2003, Vice-Chairman in 2009, and Chairman in 2011, a role in which he continues to serve. The 1978 amendment to Article II, Section 24 of the Tennessee constitution, named for its sponsor former Representative David Copeland, states, “In no year shall the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax revenues exceed the estimated rate of growth of the state’s economy as determined by law.” In the specific case of Sargent presenting HB 514 to the House membership for passage as part of the budget, the operative word is “appropriations,” when referring to growth by the state, not revenues as Sargent maintains throughout the discussion on the bill. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of appropriation is “money set aside by formal action for a specific use,“ whereas the definition of revenue is “the yield of source of income (such as taxes)…
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After much drama, heated exchanges on the floor, a tense caucus meeting on Thursday, it seemed that Friday’s floor session to address the fiscal year 2017-18 budget was not starting off much better when there were not enough members present for a quorum at 9:07 a.m. But, by 11:23 a.m. the four bills that made the state $37 billion 2017-18 budget had been passed by the House. When a quorum was not detected by 9:07 a.m., Republican Caucus Leader Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville) requested a recess until 10 a.m. for the purpose of a caucus meeting, which took place in the library. The caucus meeting was quickly turned over by Williams to House Majority Leader Glen Casada (R-Franklin), who reviewed the process for the day. Casada explained that there would be two amendments to the budget appropriations bill, the first being a “stripper” amendment, which would take off all of the additional appropriations to HB 511 approved Thursday. The second was the addition of a $55 million non-recurring appropriation to counties taken from the Highway Fund for the purpose of “kick starting” road work. Casada also mentioned the possibility of a third amendment, but was reluctant to share details until he was…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — After nearly a six and a half hour day, the Tennessee House of Representatives appears to be no closer to having a finalized budget for fiscal year 2017-18 when it goes back into session Friday at 9 a.m., as the first bill to approve the budget appropriations did not make it to a vote on Thursday. As the first legislative year of the 110th General Assembly draws to a close, the last of the bills are being heard and the budget for fiscal year 2017-18 needs to be approved. The budget passed the House Finance Ways & Means Subcommittee and full Committee on Wednesday and was placed on the calendar for the House floor session to convene at 9 a.m. Thursday. After dozens of resolutions and bills were passed, but prior to the discussion of the four bills that make Governor Haslam’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, at 10:34 a.m., Republican Caucus Chairman Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville) requested a recess until 11:30 for a caucus meeting. While a handful of members responded with their own comments, the real purpose of the Republican caucus meeting was to allow “leadership” to “encourage” support of the budget. Leadership was…
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Thursday on the House floor, between recesses where Republicans were presumably working out their differences over parts of the budget, and working their way through a pile of amendments to HB511, Democrat Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, the House Minority Leader, went to bat for a third time to secure a pot of recurring education money to be used at the discretion of local school districts. Fitzhugh opened his remarks by acknowledging a “rumor” that the Democrats had cut a deal with Governor – gas tax votes for the education slush fund, but he denied that there was any quid pro quo agreement. The starting bid for Fitzhugh’s proposed K-12 Block Grant Act was $500 million which he admitted was “ambitious.” It was then reduced to $250 million which he admitted was also “too much.” The new amount introduced in Amendment #7 to the budget, was further reduced to $150 million, money that Fitzhugh said would go to all the state’s public schools, poor and rich alike. Appealing to his House colleagues to pass his amendment, Fitzhugh said that approving the block grant funds that would be held in a trust fund would help get around the Copeland Cap problem. Fitzhugh closed…
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At the final stop before the full House makes its first of three votes on Governor Haslam’s 2017-18 $37 billion state budget, the Finance, Ways & Means Committee finalized the bills required to move the budget on, including HB 514, which Chairman Charles Sargent (R-Franklin) referred to as the “indexing bill” or Copeland Cap. The Copeland Cap is the 1978 amendment to Article II, Section 24 of the Tennessee constitution that states, “In no year shall the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax revenues exceed the estimated rate of growth of the state’s economy as determined by law.” The amendment was named for its author, former state Representative David Copeland of Ooltewah. As reported by The Tennessee Star, with the growth of state revenues, lawmakers were expected to have to break the Copeland Cap. That was confirmed Wednesday, when Chairman Sargent presented the bill to the committee, saying, “Revenues have grown and collections in the 16 budget that was not recognized in 16. That money has been placed over into the 17-18 budget. So we have to recognized that we went over. We went over by 2.85 over and above the Copeland Cap.” No further details were provided as…
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The new spending deal congressional negotiators hammered out early Monday morning runs 1,665 pages, and spends $700 million per page – the cost of keeping the basic operations of the government running for a year. President Trump and defense hawks within the GOP got a significant boost in defense spending out of the deal, while Democrats…
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Congress expanded funding given to federal agencies President Donald Trump promised to gut by billions of dollars in the newly drafted bi-partisan legislation intended to keep the government from shutting down. The House Appropriations Committee released the 2017 fiscal Omnibus Appropriations bill Monday, a piece of legislation that keeps the government solvent through Sept. 30, 2017.…
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Governor Haslam reduced the Highway Fund budget by 13 percent, while he grew the State budget by 20 percent during his first six years in office. Only after he made these reductions in the Highway Fund budget did he propose the gas tax and diesel tax increases included in the IMPROVE Act when he introduced it in January 2017. From Governor Haslam’s first budget year of 2011-12 to the most recent 2016-17, Highway Fund allocations went from $867 million to $757 million, a reduction of 13 percent. HIGHWAY FUND ALLOCATIONS Link 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Actual Actual Actual Actual Actual Estimated DOWN Budget $ $866,886,300 $823,104,600 $683,800,400 $792,219,800 $740,645,600 $756,856,000 -13% Sheet 54 of 656 54 of 545 54 of 542 54 of 550 54 of 558 54 of 558 Page A-22 A-22 A-22 A-22 A-22 A-22 During that same period, the state portion of the budget, excluding the unpredictable and heavily mandated federal funding, grew from $13.7 billion in 2011-12 to $16.5 billion in 2016-17, representing a 20 percent increase. STATE BUDGET IN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS Link 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Actual Actual Actual Actual Actual Estimated INCREASE Billion $ $13.7 $14 $14.6 $14.8 $15.3…
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For the past six years the Republicans in Congress have repeatedly demanded that Obamacare be repealed and replaced. In fact the House has voted over 60 times to repeal Obamacare but were regularly blocked by the Democrat-controlled Senate under Majority Leader Harry Reid. When Republicans took control of the Senate the House was able to pass a bill in 2016 to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood that finally came to a vote and also passed in the Senate. President Obama vetoed it. As long as President Obama could wield the veto pen there was no hope of actually repealing Obamacare. But now, with President Trump in place and with his oft-repeated campaign pledge to “repeal Obamacare,” Republicans are positioned to keep their promises and kill the disastrous and costly government health insurance scheme. Yet, here we are on the verge of success and moderate Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan and House Budget Chair Diane Black are desperately trying to simply replace Obamacare with a watered down version that replaces subsidies with credits and keeps the foundations of Obamacare firmly in place. Instead of “promises made, promises kept” the Republicans will claim “promises made, promises continued until phases two…
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Commentary: Trump’s Budget Puts GOP Congress On The Spot George Rasley, CHQ Editor March 19, 2017 It doesn’t matter what politicians say, you can always tell what their priorities are by what they spend your tax dollars on. And this is especially true of Capitol Hill’s establishment Republicans who for years have talked about cutting spending, but always pass budgets that fund Democratic Party priorities and Far Left liberal organizations. However, this year Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are on the spot because Trump budgetPresident Trump has proposed the most conservative budget since Ronald Reagan was President. (You can review President Trump’s Make America Great Again budget plan through this link.) So, this year the responsibility and the plaudits – or more likely the blame – for what gets funded will be squarely on the shoulders of Capitol Hill’s Republican leaders who can no longer blame Obama for funding Planned Parenthood, race-based groups like La Raza, and liberal boondoggles like the National Endowment for the Arts. In the simplest terms, President Trump’s new budget proposes to raise discretionary defense spending by $54 billion in the next fiscal year and cut domestic discretionary spending by an equivalent…
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Wednesday, Representative Scott DesJarlais, M.D. (R-TN-04) voted to boost troops’ numbers, pay, training, and equipment in the 2017 Defense Appropriations bill that passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin. The $584 billion defense spending measure for this fiscal year is the first of a series of appropriations bills the House will likely pass before April 28 – the date the continuing spending resolution expires. The final vote tally was 371-48, with five Republicans and forty-three Democrats voting to oppose. The military funding bill reverses the Obama Administration’s proposed troop reductions and includes $1.6 billion over the previous president’s budget request. President Donald Trump and the new Republican Congress have made rebuilding the U.S. military a centerpiece of their agenda, along with a stronger foreign policy to deter aggression. Politico reported on some specific line items of the bill: It notably includes a $6.8 billion boost in procurement funding above the Obama administration’s final fiscal 2017 budget request, including more fighters, helicopters and ships. That includes $979 million for 12 Boeing-made F/A-18 Super Hornets, $750 million for six additional Navy and Marine Corps F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and $495 million for five extra Air Force F-35s. Appropriators also added nearly $3 billion for Navy…
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The State Senate Transportation Committee voted on Monday to approve the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) 2017-18 budget of $2.2 billion, an increase of 15 percent over the 2016-17 budget of $1.9 billion. Five members of the committee voted in favor of the increased funding, while three passed on the vote. Senators Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville), Becky Massey (R-Knoxville), Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) and Chairman Paul Bailey voted for the budget, while Senators Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) and Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains) passed. Senator John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) did not respond for the roll call vote. The additional $300 million one year increase in the budget incorporates $278 million in additional funding that comes from the 7 cents per gallon tax increase (and 12 cents per diesel gallon tax increase) included in Gov. Haslam’s controversial IMPROVE Act proposal. The move sets up a conflict between the current version of Gov. Haslam’s plan, which passed through the House Transportation Subcommittee last week in an unusual legislative maneuver which required the governor’s allies to bring in House Speaker Pro-Tem Curtis Johnson (R-Clarksville) to break a 4-4 tie in committee. The bill that passed through the House Transportation Subcommittee temporarily…
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The Republican Steering Committee recommended interim Budget Chairman Diane Black of Tennessee to officially head the panel in the wake of former House Budget Chairman Tom Price being confirmed as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The House Republican Conference is slated to confirm the vote Thursday morning, which will officially make…
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