House and Senate Cloakroom: May 17–21, 2010

Dan Ziegler / May 15, 2010

House Cloakroom:  May 17 – 21

House Analysis:

Last week Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced the House would not be taking up a budget this year, which would be the first time since the modern budget process was created in 1974 that the House failed to pass a budget. The reason becomes clear when you take into account a previous statement Hoyer made, “It’s difficult to pass budgets in election years because they reflect what the [fiscal] status is.” The House Republicans successfully used their last chance to amend the bill known as the “motion to recommit” to force a vote that stalled the passage of the $85.6 billion authorization bill for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, and research programs at the Department of Energy. This bill is expected to come back this week with some modifications. The other major bill likely to move this week is a $200 billion tax extender bill that will also extend spending programs like Unemployment Insurance, COBRA, TANF, and FMAP and will likely also include a Medicare Doc Fix. The final bill is not yet available as they are still working on several of the provisions. (more…)