Subject:

IGNORE: update to send out

From:
"Joan Peugh" jpeugh@rosemontseneca.com
To:
"Hunter Biden" hbiden@rosemontseneca.com
Date:
2011-11-01 18:44
In this newsletter: This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” Financial Shorts: Hedge Fund Reporting; Internet Stimulus Fail Political Shorts UPDATES: Supercommittee; Spending Bills

 

Washington Update– November 1, 2011
In this newsletter: This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” Financial Shorts: Hedge Fund Reporting; Internet Stimulus Fail Political Shorts UPDATES: Supercommittee; Spending Bills
In this newsletter: This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” Financial Shorts: Hedge Fund Reporting; Internet Stimulus Fail Political Shorts UPDATES: Supercommittee; Spending Bills
1. This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” The series of economic initiatives announced by President Obama in the past week reflects a strategic and tactical shift that White House officials hope will guide the president’s governing and political agenda in the months ahead. With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama has begun a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months. President Obama kicked off his new offensive in Las Vegas by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners can refinance or avert foreclosure. He continued to Denver to announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans. The new effort, carried out through unilateral executive actions, was agreed upon weeks ago and is strongly reminiscent of a successful campaign deployed by Bill Clinton in the run-up to his 1996 reelection. The strategy is an approach designed to portray Obama as decisive as the White House complains about Congress’s failure to pass his jobs bill. Aides say President Obama, or cabinet secretaries, will announce at least one initiative each week through the rest of the year, including steps to help returning veterans and small businesses. Yet the officials acknowledge that the coming policy changes, executive orders and agency actions are generally less far-reaching than the legislative proposals now before Congress. Polls show overwhelming support for pieces of the $447 billion package, but Republicans oppose provisions in the President’s plan that would offset the costs with higher taxes on the wealthy. Earlier this month Republicans blocked debate on a $35 billion bill for state aid to pay teachers, police officers and firefighters- Democrats’ first effort to break the jobs package into individual pieces. The next piece to be brought up will be a $60 billion package to help rebuild aging infrastructure. The measure would provide $50 billion for roads, bridges, rail and airport projects, putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers, engineers and contractors back to work at a time the country is struggling with unemployment. An additional $10 billion would be used as seed money for an infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for additional construction projects. Similar to Obama’s jobs package and the smaller $35 billion hiring bill, the infrastructure bill would be fully paid for by charging a 0.7 percent surtax on any income over $1 million a year for individuals and couples – an idea that has never sat well with Republicans who are staunchly opposed to anything resembling a tax hike. At the same time, Democrats who are normally loyal to Obama could also present an obstacle. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who serves as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, warns that an infrastructure bank should not be used to replace federal dollars, and that it should not be a core program. So for now, the President will exercise his constitutional muscle outside of Congress and continue to announce jobs-related initiatives through the fall that require executive action rather than legislation regardless of resistance from Congress to his broader legislative proposals. Given the modest scale of the measures, they are as much about symbolism as substance. 2. Financial Shorts Hedge Fund Reporting The SEC unanimously adopted a new rule last week that requires large hedge funds to report detailed information on their holdings to federal regulators. Managers of funds with more than $1.5 billion in assets will be required to disclose aggregated information on how much the fund has invested in various asset classes, where investments are concentrated geographically, and how active the fund is in trading its portfolio. In addition, large funds must disclose how leveraged their investments are and how liquid they are. Large funds will be required to report the information quarterly, within 60 days of the end of the quarter. H owever, they are not required to report “position information,” or details on individual investment holdings. Hedge funds with $150 million to $1.5 billion in assets will be subject to less extensive disclosures, as will private equity funds. The new rule has “substantial modifications” from the proposal that the SEC released in February that drew broad complaints from hedge fund managers and at least one member of Congress, who said in comments filed with the Commission that the requirements posed an unnecessary regulatory burden on investment managers. They also expressed concern about whether the regulators will be able to keep the proprietary information confidential. Because the new rules are a joint release with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the SEC won’t make public the actual rule until after the CFTC approves it, which is expected to be later this week. If approved as expected by the CFTC, the new rules will go into effect in mid- to late-2012, depending on a fund’s size. Internet Stimulus Fail The Commerce Department revoked a $80.6 million grant to bring broadband Internet connections to Louisiana, saying that the state fell behind schedule and changed its original plan for the stimulus funds. The vast majority of funds will be returned to the US Treasury, except for $594,000 that has been delivered to the state already. The grant to Louisiana Broadband Alliance was intended to create a fiber optic network stretching 900 miles to the most economically distressed areas of the state. Six state agencies said they would coordinate on the project, which was to provide access to schools, libraries and health care facilities. But the project didn’t meet deadlines, and the state changed plans and didn’t give enough technical and financial details to ensure the project would be completed. The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service have awarded $7.2 billion in stimulus funds during the Obama administration aimed at bringing high-speed Internet connections to rural areas. The Louisiana project is the fourth one to fail among the NTIA’s 233 awards. The agency and the Agriculture Department have hailed the success of other projects, saying that generally the stimulus programs have been an overall success. But the failure of projects supported by grants and loans from the federal government has also come under greater scrutiny by some Republican lawmakers. Several have questioned the distribution of taxpayer dollars into ill-conceived projects such as the bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra. 3. Political Shorts– UPDATES Supercommittee In 22 days, the Supercommittee is set to report its findings, and this week marks an unofficial deadline for the panel: The Congressional Budget Office has said it needs to see the committee’s report for budgetary scoring in the early part of this month. Now it appears that Social Security is on the negotiating table. This is on top of proposals already put forth inside the panel. Last week saw a slew of plans introduced by Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Democrats unveiled a plan that would cut the deficit by roughly $3 trillion, which was declared not “serious” by Republicans because of $1.3 trillion in new tax-based revenue, but their plan did include changes to Social Security. Republicans rolled out a $2.2 trillion plan, which would generate $640 billion in nontax revenue. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have discussed a $1.2 trillion plan, and changes to Social Security alongside it could show they are reaching for a broader scope. If the committee were to take up changes to Social Security, it could show that Congress is looking for systemic changes to the nation’s finances — something markets and credit rating agencies want to see. It may not help the committee get to $1.2 trillion, but Democrats are all but certain to insist that Boehner commit to serious changes on taxes alongside such entitlement restructuring. Dissension remains though. It’s clear that even if Democrats on the Supercommittee got their way, they’d have trouble with the left flank of their party. Behind all this, both sides are staking out ground to diffuse blame on a final compromise. Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the Supercommittee to become a historic failure. Both sides are already laying the groundwork for a bitter round of finger-pointing in the event of a messy aftermath later this fall. Spending bills The first Minibus, which contains funding for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments, cleared the Senate Tuesday after bipartisan votes rejected conservative demands for still deeper appropriations cuts. The bill now heads to a House-Senate conference. It is the first in a series of appropriations packages which the leadership hopes to finalize over the next month while keeping faith with the spending limits set under the August debt limit accords. Speed is important, with the government operating under a stopgap spending bill due to expire November 18. But the shotgun process still risks a fight in the House, where conservatives are upset both with the level of funding allowed and their limited ability to offer floor amendments. So far, the only 2012 appropriations bill passed by both houses of Congress is the one funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Minibus process of grouping several appropriations bills into one package is an attempt to avoid one giant Omnibus bill that would allow only limited debate and floor amendments. The next Minibus would contain the bills funding the Energy Department, financial services and possibly the State Department. These are more controversial than the other spending measures considered by the Senate so far. Including the Energy bill in this package would almost certainly resurrect calls by House Republicans to defund green energy subsidies favored by the Obama administration.  The State bill contains cuts to foreign aid that are opposed by the administration, and passage of the financial-services bill would set off a battle with the House over provisions defunding the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Left outstanding are the highly controversial Labor and Health bill and the Interior and Environment bill. The House has proposed bills that defund President Obama’s healthcare reform law, while its environmental bill blocks dozens of environmental rules. The Senate Appropriations Committee has been unable to mark up its Interior and Environment bill due to squabbling among subcommittee members. Also on tap are the Defense, Homeland Security and Legislative-Branch bills, though moving these could be less difficult. Defense enjoys broad support, and might be able to “carry” the other, more controversial bills to passage as part of a final five-bill package.
1. This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” The series of economic initiatives announced by President Obama in the past week reflects a strategic and tactical shift that White House officials hope will guide the president’s governing and political agenda in the months ahead. With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama has begun a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months. President Obama kicked off his new offensive in Las Vegas by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners can refinance or avert foreclosure. He continued to Denver to announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans. The new effort, carried out through unilateral executive actions, was agreed upon weeks ago and is strongly reminiscent of a successful campaign deployed by Bill Clinton in the run-up to his 1996 reelection. The strategy is an approach designed to portray Obama as decisive as the White House complains about Congress’s failure to pass his jobs bill. Aides say President Obama, or cabinet secretaries, will announce at least one initiative each week through the rest of the year, including steps to help returning veterans and small businesses. Yet the officials acknowledge that the coming policy changes, executive orders and agency actions are generally less far-reaching than the legislative proposals now before Congress. Polls show overwhelming support for pieces of the $447 billion package, but Republicans oppose provisions in the President’s plan that would offset the costs with higher taxes on the wealthy. Earlier this month Republicans blocked debate on a $35 billion bill for state aid to pay teachers, police officers and firefighters- Democrats’ first effort to break the jobs package into individual pieces. The next piece to be brought up will be a $60 billion package to help rebuild aging infrastructure. The measure would provide $50 billion for roads, bridges, rail and airport projects, putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers, engineers and contractors back to work at a time the country is struggling with unemployment. An additional $10 billion would be used as se ed money for an infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for additional construction projects. Similar to Obama’s jobs package and the smaller $35 billion hiring bill, the infrastructure bill would be fully paid for by charging a 0.7 percent surtax on any income over $1 million a year for individuals and couples – an idea that has never sat well with Republicans who are staunchly opposed to anything resembling a tax hike. At the same time, Democrats who are normally loyal to Obama could also present an obstacle. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who serves as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, warns that an infrastructure bank should not be used to replace federal dollars, and that it should not be a core program. So for now, the President will exercise his constitutional muscle outside of Congress and continue to announce jobs-related initiatives through the fall that require executive action rather than legislation regardless of resistance from Congress to his broader legislative proposals. Given the modest scale of the measures, they are as much about symbolism as substance. 2. Financial Shorts Hedge Fund Reporting The SEC unanimously adopted a new rule last week that requires large hedge funds to report detailed information on their holdings to federal regulators. Managers of funds with more than $1.5 billion in assets will be required to disclose aggregated information on how much the fund has invested in various asset classes, where investments are concentrated geographically, and how active the fund is in trading its portfolio. In addition, large funds must disclose how leveraged their investments are and how liquid they are. Large funds will be required to report the information quarterly, within 60 days of the end of the quarter. However, they are not required to report “position information,” or details on individual investment holdings. Hedge funds with $150 million to $1.5 billion in assets will be subject to less extensive disclosures, as will private equity funds. The new rule has “substantial modifications” from the proposal that the SEC released in February that drew broad complaints from hedge fund managers and at least one member of Congress, who said in comments filed with the Commission that the requirements posed an unnecessary regulatory burden on investment managers. They also expressed concern about whether the regulators will be able to keep the proprietary information confidential. Because the new rules are a joint release with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the SEC won’t make public the actual rule until after the CFTC approves it, which is expected to be later this week. If approved as expected by the CFTC, the new rules will go into effect in mid- to late-2012, depending on a fund’s size. Internet Stimulus Fail The Commerce Department revoked a $80.6 million grant to bring broadband Internet connections to Louisiana, saying that the state fell behind schedule and changed its original plan for the stimulus funds. The vast majority of funds will be returned to the US Treasury, except for $594,000 that has been delivered to the state already. The grant to Louisiana Broadband Alliance was intended to create a fiber optic network stretching 900 miles to the most economically distressed areas of the state. Six state agencies said they would coordinate on the project, which was to provide access to schools, libraries and health care facilities. But the project didn’t meet deadlines, and the state changed plans and didn’t give enough technical and financial details to ensure the project would be completed. The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service have awarded $7.2 billion in stimulus funds during the Obama administration aimed at bringing high-speed Internet connections to rural areas. The Louisiana project is the fourth one to fail among the NTIA’s 233 awards. The agency and the Agriculture Department have hailed the success of other projects, saying that generally the stimulus programs have been an overall success. But the failure of projects supported by grants and loans from the federal government has also come under greater scrutiny by some Republican lawmakers. Several have questioned the distribution of taxpayer dollars into ill-conceived projects such as the bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra. 3. Political Shorts– UPDATES Supercommittee In 22 days, the Supercommittee is set to report its findings, and this week marks an unofficial deadline for the panel: The Congressional Budget Office has said it needs to see the committee’s report for budgetary scoring in the early part of this month. Now it appears that Social Security is on the negotiating table. This is on top of proposals already put forth inside the panel. Last week saw a slew of plans introduced by Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Democrats unveiled a plan that would cut the deficit by roughly $3 trillion, which was declared not “serious” by Republicans because of $1.3 trillion in new tax-based revenue, but their plan did include changes to Social Security. Republicans rolled out a $2.2 trillion plan, which would generate $640 billion in nontax revenue. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have discussed a $1.2 trillion plan, and changes to Social Security alongside it could show they are reaching for a broader scope. If the committee were to take up changes to Social Security, it could show that Congress is looking for systemic changes to the nation’s finances — something markets and credit rating agencies want to see. It may not help the committee get to $1.2 trillion, but Democrats are all but certain to insist that Boehner commit to serious changes on taxes alongside such entitlement restructuring. Dissension remains though. It’s clear that even if Democrats on the Supercommittee got their way, they’d have trouble with the left flank of their party. Behind all this, both sides are staking out ground to diffuse blame on a final compromise. Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the Supercommittee to become a historic failure. Both sides are already laying the groundwork for a bitter round of finger-pointing in the event of a messy aftermath later this fall. Spending bills The first Minibus, which contains funding for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments, cleared the Senate Tuesday after bipartisan votes rejected conservative demands for still deeper appropriations cuts. The bill now heads to a House-Senate conference. It is the first in a series of appropriations packages which the leadership hopes to finalize over the next month while keeping faith with the spending limits set under the August debt limit accords. Speed is important, with the government operating under a stopgap spending bill due to expire November 18. But the shotgun process still risks a fight in the House, where conservatives are upset both with the level of funding allowed and their limited ability to offer floor amendments. So far, the only 2012 appropriations bill passed by both houses of Congress is the one funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Minibus process of grouping several appropriations bills into one package is an attempt to avoid one giant Omnibus bill that would allow only limited debate and floor amendments. The next Minibus would contain the bills funding the Energy Department, financial services and possibly the State Department. These are more controversial than the other spending measures considered by the Senate so far. Including the Energy bill in this package would almost certainly resurrect calls by House Republicans to defund green energy subsidies favored by the Obama administration.  The State bill contains cuts to foreign aid that are opposed by the administration, and passage of the financial-services bill would set off a battle with the House over provisions defunding the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Left outstanding are the highly controversial Labor and Health bill and the Interior and Environment bill. The House has proposed bills that defund President Obama’s healthcare reform law, while its environmental bill blocks dozens of environmental rules. The Senate Appropriations Committee has been unable to mark up its Interior and Environment bill due to squabbling among subcommittee members. Also on tap are the Defense, Homeland Security and Legislative-Branch bills, though moving these could be less difficult. Defense enjoys broad support, and might be able to “carry” the other, more controversial bills to passage as part of a final five-bill package.
1. This Week in Washington: “We can’t wait” The series of economic initiatives announced by President Obama in the past week reflects a strategic and tactical shift that White House officials hope will guide the president’s governing and political agenda in the months ahead. With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama has begun a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming mon ths. President Obama kicked off his new offensive in Las Vegas by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners can refinance or avert foreclosure. He continued to Denver to announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans. The new effort, carried out through unilateral executive actions, was agreed upon weeks ago and is strongly reminiscent of a successful campaign deployed by Bill Clinton in the run-up to his 1996 reelection. The strategy is an approach designed to portray Obama as decisive as the White House complains about Congress’s failure to pass his jobs bill. Aides say President Obama, or cabinet secretaries, will announce at least one initiative each week through the rest of the year, including steps to help returning veterans and small businesses. Yet the officials acknowledge that the coming policy changes, executive orders and agency actions are generally less far-reaching than the legislative proposals now before Congress. Polls show overwhelming support for pieces of the $447 billion package, but Republicans oppose provisions in the President’s plan that would offset the costs with higher taxes on the wealthy. Earlier this month Republicans blocked debate on a $35 billion bill for state aid to pay teachers, police officers and firefighters- Democrats’ first effort to break the jobs package into individual pieces. The next piece to be brought up will be a $60 billion package to help rebuild aging infrastructure. The measure would provide $50 billion for roads, bridges, rail and airport projects, putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers, engineers and contractors back to work at a time the country is struggling with unemployment. An additional $10 billion would be used as seed money for an infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for additional construction projects. Similar to Obama’s jobs package and the smaller $35 billion hiring bill, the infrastructure bill would be fully paid for by charging a 0.7 percent surtax on any income over $1 million a year for individuals and couples – an idea that has never sat well with Republicans who are staunchly opposed to anything resembling a tax hike. At the same time, Democrats who are normally loyal to Obama could also present an obstacle. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who serves as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, warns that an infrastructure bank should not be used to replace federal dollars, and that it should not be a core program. So for now, the President will exercise his constitutional muscle outside of Congress and continue to announce jobs-related initiatives through the fall that require executive action rather than legislation regardless of resistance from Congress to his broader legislative proposals. Given the modest scale of the measures, they are as much about symbolism as substance. 2. Financial Shorts Hedge Fund Reporting The SEC unanimously adopted a new rule last week that requires large hedge funds to report detailed information on their holdings to federal regulators. Managers of funds with more than $1.5 billion in assets will be required to disclose aggregated information on how much the fund has invested in various asset classes, where investments are concentrated geographically, and how active the fund is in trading its portfolio. In addition, large funds must disclose how leveraged their investments are and how liquid they are. Large funds will be required to report the information quarterly, within 60 days of the end of the quarter. However, they are not required to report “position information,” or details on individual investment holdings. Hedge funds with $150 million to $1.5 billion in assets will be subject to less extensive disclosures, as will private equity funds. The new rule has “substantial modifications” from the proposal that the SEC released in February that drew broad complaints from hedge fund managers and at least one member of Congress, who said in comments filed with the Commission that the requirements posed an unnecessary regulatory burden on investment managers. They also expressed concern about whether the regulators will be able to keep the proprietary information confidential. Because the new rules are a joint release with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the SEC won’t make public the actual rule until after the CFTC approves it, which is expected to be later this week. If approved as expected by the CFTC, the new rules will go into effect in mid- to late-2012, depending on a fund’s size. Internet Stimulus Fail The Commerce Department revoked a $80.6 million grant to bring broadband Internet connections to Louisiana, saying that the state fell behind schedule and changed its original plan for the stimulus funds. The vast majority of funds will be returned to the US Treasury, except for $594,000 that has been delivered to the state already. The grant to Louisiana Broadband Alliance was intended to create a fiber optic network stretching 900 miles to the most economically distressed areas of the state. Six state agencies said they would coordinate on the project, which was to provide access to schools, libraries and health care facilities. But the project didn’t meet deadlines, and the state changed plans and didn’t give enough technical and financial details to ensure the project would be completed. The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service have awarded $7.2 billion in stimulus funds during the Obama administration aimed at bringing high-speed Internet connections to rural areas. The Louisiana project is the fourth one to fail among the NTIA’s 233 awards. The agency and the Agriculture Department have hailed the success of other projects, saying that generally the stimulus programs have been an overall success. But the failure of projects supported by grants and loans from the federal government has also come under greater scrutiny by some Republican lawmakers. Several have questioned the distribution of taxpayer dollars into ill-conceived projects such as the bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra. 3. Political Shorts– UPDATES Supercommittee In 22 days, the Supercommittee is set to report its findings, and this week marks an unofficial deadline for the panel: The Congressional Budget Office has said it needs to see the committee’s report for budgetary scoring in the early part of this month. Now it appears that Social Security is on the negotiating table. This is on top of proposals already put forth inside the panel. Last week saw a slew of plans introduced by Democrats and Republicans on the committee. Democrats unveiled a plan that would cut the deficit by roughly $3 trillion, which was declared not “serious” by Republicans because of $1.3 trillion in new tax-based revenue, but their plan did include changes to Social Security. Republicans rolled out a $2.2 trillion plan, which would generate $640 billion in nontax revenue. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have discussed a $1.2 trillion plan, and changes to Social Security alongside it could show they are reaching for a broader scope. If the committee were to take up changes to Social Security, it could show that Congress is looking for systemic changes to the nation’s finances — something markets and credit rating agencies want to see. It may not help the committee get to $1.2 trillion, but Democrats are all but certain to insist that Boehner commit to serious changes on taxes alongside such entitlement restructuring. Dissension remains though. It’s clear that even if Democrats on the Supercommittee got their way, they’d have trouble with the left flank of their party. Behind all this, both sides are staking out ground to diffuse blame on a final compromise. Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the Supercommittee to become a historic failure. Both sides are already laying the groundwork for a bitter round of finger-pointing in the event of a messy aftermath later this fall. Spending bills The first Minibus, which contains funding for the Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments, cleared the Senate Tuesday after bipartisan votes rejected conservative demands for still deeper appropriations cuts. The bill now heads to a House-Senate conference. It is the first in a series of appropriations packages which the leadership hopes to finalize over the next month while keeping faith with the spending limits set under the August debt limit accords. Speed is important, with the government operating under a stopgap spending bill due to expire November 18. But the shotgun process still risks a fight in the House, where conservatives are upset both with the level of funding allowed and their limited ability to offer floor amendments. So far, the only 2012 appropriations bill passed by both houses of Congress is the one funding military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Minibus process of grouping several appropriations bills into one package is an attempt to avoid one giant Omnibus bill that would allow only limited debate and floor amendments. The next Minibus would contain the bills funding the Energy Department, financial services and possibly the State Department. These are more controversial than the other spending measures considered by the Senate so far. Including the Energy bill in this package would almost certainly resurrect calls by House Republicans to defund green energy subsidies favored by the Obama administration.  The State bill contains cuts to foreign aid that are opposed by the administration, and passage of the financial-services bill would set off a battle with the House over provisions defunding the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Left outstanding are the highly controversial Labor and Health bill and the Interior and Environment bill. The House has proposed bills that defund President Obama’s healthcare reform law, while its environmental bill blocks dozens of environmental rules. The Senate Appropriations Committee has been unable to mark up its Interior and Environment bill due to squabbling among subcommittee members. Also on tap are the Defense, Homeland Security and Legislative-Branch bills, though moving these could be less difficult. Defense enjoys broad support, and might be able to “carry” the other, more controversial bills to passage as part of a final five-bill package.

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