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The good news is that they might pass a spending bill in the house the bad news is the details, increasing limits to both democratic and republican national committees (there wasn't enough money in politics) but the largest changes is to Dodd-Frank that benefit the financial sector, looks like the banks had their way and are now fully recovered from 2008.
I wish they would put their policies up for debate and a democratic vote, as opposed to sneaking them into 'must pass' spending bills where the only alternative is shutting down the government. They wrote a 1600 page bill and give Congress 48 hours to read it, which is impossible. In the bill are buried all kinds of things they have been unable to get passed through democratic elections. Even the legal marijuana law in DC, which passed by 70% vote, is being nullified.
I am all for letting the banks do whatever they want but I will not insure them for the losses. I would like to see the managers of the banks responsible for bank losses to the full extent of their own fortunes. Then they would be betting their own farm as well as their depositors.
Well then your going to hate this bill because this rolls back regulations under Dodd-Frank that prohibited financial institutions from using FDIC to back investments on some more complicated financial investments. Does that sound familiar?
I understand that there were 9 GOP proposals to weaken Dodd-Frank, this one remained from the negotiations with the democrats.
I wish they would put their policies up for debate and a democratic vote, as opposed to sneaking them into 'must pass' spending bills where the only alternative is shutting down the government. They wrote a 1600 page bill and give Congress 48 hours to read it, which is impossible. In the bill are buried all kinds of things they have been unable to get passed through democratic elections. Even the legal marijuana law in DC, which passed by 70% vote, is being nullified.
I think part of this is that if they gave the factions in the house enough time to debate nothing would ever pass, that is why they vote at the last possible moment. I still agree and would like to see a debate on the more important issues to see the congressmen behind them, whoever put this rider in is sitting in the shadows reaping the benefits from selling out to the financial lobby.
I've read a couple of the approps bills contained in the omnibus, and I'm absolutely stunned by everything they have packed in there.
I've been working on appropriations for nearly 10 years (since FY'06) and this is the farthest reaching approps bill I think I've seen. It's writing significant policy, not just funding them, which encroaches on other Committees' jurisdiction. There's always prescriptive report language and some policy riders here and there in these bills, but this bill is really on steroids in that regard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockside
So when is a government shutdown not a government shutdown? When liberals do it, of course. Elizabeth Warren has her knickers in a twist over changes to Dodd-Frank and is putting pressure on other Democrats not to support the bill. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2014/12/...XUJ/story.html
And where are the howls of rage against Democrats shutting down the government? Lol...even the thickest of libs know the answer to that one. It's good to have the MSM in your back pocket, even if you need Eric Holder and the DOJ to threaten them once in awhile.
If, for whatever reason, they can't whip the votes for the Omnibus by the end of the day, they're prepared to pass a short term CR to allow negotiations to continue. There is a short-term CR drafted to extend into next week, and there is also a CR drafted to extend funding for 3 months if needed. No one is talking shutdown in DC. Period.
I've read a couple of the approps bills contained in the omnibus, and I'm absolutely stunned by everything they have packed in there.
I've been working on appropriations for nearly 10 years (since FY'06) and this is the farthest reaching approps bill I think I've seen. It's writing significant policy, not just funding them, which encroaches on other Committees' jurisdiction. There's always prescriptive report language and some policy riders here and there in these bills, but this bill is really on steroids in that regard.
Farthest reaching in a good way or bad way? I'm really just curious, not political or argumentative. I just read Obama said he'd sign the bill.
Farthest reaching in a good way or bad way? I'm really just curious, not political or argumentative.
Hard to say if it's 'good or bad'. It's just unusual, and there is potential for abuse.
The division of power between Congressional committees is defined by their jurisdictions. The Appropriations is extremely powerful because it funds most federal programs (not including mandatory programs which draw from non-appropriations revenue - like Medicare). However, the Appropriations Committee has limited jurisdiction to create or amend programs. That power lies with the various authorizing Committees that have jurisdiction over specific agencies and programs (Energy & Commerce, Ways & Means, Transportation, Financial Services etc etc).
For example, the Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over the laws created by Dodd/Frank. While the Appropriations Committee can decide at what level to fund Dodd/Frank programs that year, they don't have jurisdiction to change the law. However in this Omnibus they did include significant changes to the law. Theoretically, the Financial Services Committee could make a jurisdictional grievance and request that the Bill be referred to their committee prior to seeing the House floor, or that the provision is stripped because it is not germane to appropriations. That won't happen because too much is on the line, and in reality the approps bill was negotiated by Congressional leadership, and they call the shots.
The danger here is that by extending Approps' authority beyond making funding decisions, and making them a defacto policy-writing committee, you're vesting the Committee with a tremendous amount of power and circumventing the intentional distribution of authority. An Omnibus Appropriations Bill is so large, and so important, that they can put a ton of individual policies in there, and people will have to vote for them whether they like them or not because of the rest of the bill is too important.
There's always some of these types of policy riders on approps, because it's a big legislative vehicle, but this one just reaches a little further than others.
I was wondering if there is any public record as to what transpires in the appropriations committee prior t reaching agreement.
Yes and no. We already know what the overall funding numbers are going to be for the federal government, because the Budget Control Act established overall spending limits through 2021.
The way it is supposed to work is that there are 12 Approps subcommittees, that should produce 12 separate funding bills. You can follow the evolution of those bills as they go through subcommittee hearings. Then sometimes they'll release a draft or it will get leaked. You'll definitely be able to see the bills online before they vote on the subcommittee version. That gives you an idea of where they are going. Those subcommittee bills are usually out in May/June. Then the bills are each supposed to go to the full approps committee where they offer amendments etc before going to the House floor for a final vote before October 1(beginning of next fiscal year).
Unfortunately that almost never happens. The bills get bogged down in larger politics, sometimes they don't even get a bill out of the subcommittees, then they have to pass a stop-gap funding legislation because they don't get them done by October, then they have to bundle everything together in a massive Omnibus deal that is negotiated by House and Senate leadership in a fairly closed-door process. It's an attractive vehicle for throwing all sorts of things in there because Congress has to pass it whether they want to or not because a shutdown is imminent.
So it should be a better process than it has been.
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