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THE BIG DEAL– Lawmakers push to end shutdowns — for good: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are exploring legislative options that would prevent a repeat of the record 35-day shutdown, and their proposed solutions are drawing interest and support from top congressional leaders.
The push comes as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report Monday that the shutdown cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion, with $3 billion expected to be permanently lost even after workers receive back pay and services return to normal.
Members of both parties have introduced bills that would automatically fund the government at existing levels if lawmakers can’t meet statutory budget deadlines. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos explains here.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly expressed interest in the idea during a columnist roundtable shortly before the shutdown ended Friday.
- Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) endorsed the approach at a news conference in Manhattan. “Now that the shutdown is over, we should roll up our sleeves and make sure it never happens again,” he said, according to Newsday.
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he not only supported the legislative proposals out there, he said he would “go further,” by preventing members of Congress from getting paid during a lapse in appropriations.
- And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that he is open to legislation that would prevent future government shutdowns, saying they don’t “work for anybody and I hope they will be avoided.”
The proposals:
- Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced the Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage In The Coming Years Act, dubbed the Stop Stupidity Act, which would automatically keep the federal government running at the same funding levels as the previous fiscal year if a spending deadline is missed. The measure would withhold funding for the legislative branch and the Executive Office of the President in an attempt to motivate lawmakers to negotiate.
- Another proposal, from Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), would automatically fund the government at existing levels if lawmakers don’t reach an agreement on time. But funding would be reduced by 1 percent after 120 days and again every subsequent 90 days if lawmakers haven’t reached a deal.
The snag: It’s unclear if President Trump would sign legislation into law that prevents future shutdowns, since doing so would remove some of the power and leverage wielded by the White House when it comes to spending negotiations.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders neither endorsed nor rejected the proposals during a Monday press briefing.
“I’m not going to get into the hypotheticals of taking that off the table,” she told reporters. “I haven’t seen a piece of legislation.”
LEADING THE DAY
Dems push to include contractor back pay in any shutdown deal: A growing group of Democratic lawmakers is pushing for legislation that would provide back pay to low-wage government contractors, and they want their measure included in any final funding deal that’s struck before a Feb. 15 deadline.
While about 800,000 federal workers are guaranteed to receive back pay for the 35-day shutdown that ended Friday, furloughed contractors don’t have any statutory protections to recoup lost wages stemming from the shutdown.
“The federal shutdown isn’t over for thousands of businesses and their employees,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) on Tuesday, flanked by contract workers in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ union. “Contractors like these ones have never been made whole after any shutdown, and that needs to change.” The Hill’s Niv Elis tells us why.
- Many of the low-wage contractors are security guards, cleaners and food workers who provide services in federal buildings. After a shutdown, it’s up to individual contracting companies to decide who gets paid, and the businesses that furloughed workers aren’t being reimbursed for lost service during the shutdown.
- “It really devastated my family,” said Lila Johnson, who has worked as a sanitation worker at the Department of Agriculture for 21 years and ended up withdrawing funds from her life insurance policy.
- De’von Russell, a security guard at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, said he was concerned about whether he would be able to keep his car as he worked to make rent, pay off credit card bills and support his family, including his 3-year-old daughter. “We’re still in the hole. Who knows when we’re going to get a decent paycheck?” he said.
- Smith has introduced a bill that would allow certain types of contractors already defined in federal law to request payment from the government for their workers. Reimbursements would be capped at 200 percent of the poverty line, roughly $50,000 a year.
Dems demand records from Mnuchin on lifting sanctions for Deripaska-tied firms: Three top House Democrats have formally requested documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions on companies connected to a prominent Russian oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday, Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) asked for documents pertaining to the administration’s Sunday decision to remove three companies previously controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska from a list of sanctioned firms.
They described the terms of the agreement under which Treasury agreed to lift the sanctions as “unusual” and alleged that “many questions remain unanswered.” The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant fills us in here.
The background: The sanctions were initially imposed on the firms under a law aimed at punishing Russia for interfering in the 2016 election as a result of Deripaska’s connections to Putin.
The administration announced in December that it would lift the sanctions on Deripaska’s aluminum company, United Co. Rusal, as well as En+ Group plc and JSC EuroSibEnergo, after Deripaska agreed to reduce his ownership stake in each of the companies to below 50 percent.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Top House progressives are circulating a letter urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to propose a requirement that presidents release their business tax returns and their personal tax filings.
- Harley-Davidson said on Tuesday that its earnings per share were essentially wiped out in the final quarter of 2018 due to President Trump’s tariffs.
- President Trump will not present his budget proposal for the 2020 fiscal year as planned next week in the wake of the partial government shutdown, which left many workers from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) furloughed.
- House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) is demanding that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin provide an update on the debt limit ahead of a March 1 deadline.
- A lawyer representing Huawei’s chief financial officer on Tuesday urged U.S. prosecutors to not hold Meng Wanzhou “hostage” to U.S.-China relations after Wanzhou was charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions in Iran.
- Critics are targeting Facebook and Google after a week of high-profile layoffs in the media industry, pointing to their dominance over internet ads as the reason news outlets are struggling.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Apple said its quarterly revenue dropped 5 percent and its iPhone sales are down 15 percent from last year, following CEO Tim Cook’s warning early this month that trade tensions with China were hurting the company’s device sales.
- GoFundMe’s CEO said one-third of all fundraisers posted on the website are now for medical expenses.