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Washington Friday Report ITEM IV C SIMON AND COMPANY INCORPORATED Washington Friday Report Volume XV, Issue 11 March 15, 2013 awarding of grants will depend ultimately on the FY13 I N S I D E T H I S W EEK Continuing Resolution, but COPS is likely to go forward with the solicitation in April under any circumstances. Remember 1 FY13 CR, COPS, FY14 House and Senate Budgets that COPS Hiring Grants are for a maximum of $125,000 over a 3-year period with a 25% local match and with the grant 2 VAWA, Gun Bills, Brownfields, WRDA, MAP-21 recipient obligated to pay for the fourth year at 100%. Like last year, the COPS office will be seeking applications which give 2 Transit Ridership Surge, Brookings on Rail preference to hiring veterans. This year, there is also a strong possibility that the COPS office will favor applications which give preference to School Resource Officer activities and other Talk about regular order! This week, Washington was in school safety initiatives in light of the Newtown massacre. overdrive – the House and Senate dealing with FY13 and FY14 More on this as the COPS FY13 solicitation proceeds. budgets, the President in search of the Bipartisan Grand Bargain, and lots more. Here’s the highlights for your review. FY14 House and Senate Budget Resolutions Senate FY13 Continuing Resolution The House and Senate are both at work marking up their respective FY14 budget resolutions, but vast differences Both the House and the Senate have released their respective remain between the two top-line spending measures. House FY13 Continuing Resolutions (CRs) to fund the federal Budget Chairman Paul Ryan released his committee’s plan, th government past March 27 to avoid a shutdown. Last week on which aims to reduce the deficit by $4.6 trillion over a 10-year Wednesday, the House passed its CR (H.R. 933) by a vote of 267 period beginning in FY14. The House plan would continually to 151. All eyes now turn to the Senate, where nearly 100 reduce government spending to achieve a balanced budget in amendments have been filed for the bill. Senate Democrats hope FY23, and those continuing reductions would eventually pay to avoid drawing the ire of House Republicans by not adding on off the national debt by 2050. It would cause more than $4 too many extra provisions that could doom its passage. “We’re trillion worth of spending cuts on top of the deficit reduction watching the amendment process, hoping we don’t get some achieved by the sequester, calls for repeal of the Affordable poison pill,” said House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers. Care Act, and overhauls of the tax code. For more, click on Senate Appropriations Chairman Barbara Mikulski and Ranking House Budget Plan. Member Richard Shelby offered an amendment to the House’s CR that adds three more FY13 spending bills: Agriculture, By contrast, Senate Budget Chairman Pat Murray’s plan Commerce-Justice-Science, and Homeland Security. The Senate reduces the deficit by $1.85 trillion over a decade, but includes CR retains the two FY13 spending bills already in the House CR: a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases that she Defense and Military Construction-VA. The other seven proposes to replace the $1.2 trillion, nine-year sequester. Her remaining bills are expected to be covered by a simple continuing sequester replacement plan would add over $600 billion in resolution that mostly extends FY12 spending levels. additional deficit reduction. Both plans start at the top-level Transportation advocates found some good news in the Senate discretionary spending limit of $966 billion for FY14 under the amendment offered by Senator Mikulski, which would restore sequester, but the Senate Democrats’ fix would raise that more than $500 million for surface transportation grant programs spending amount to $1.058 trillion. Lastly, the Senate’s plan administered by the Transportation Department, as called for by would call for $100 billion in new stimulus funds: $50 billion MAP-21. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that we for programs as called for in President Obama’s “Fix it First” should expect a full Senate vote on the CR on Monday. For proposal for transportation and infrastructure spending, $20 more, click on House CR Summary, Senators Mikulski and billion for school infrastructure spending, $10 billion for an Shelby Amendment Summary, or List of Yesterday’s Senate infrastructure bank, and $20 billion split evenly between Amendments to the CR. worker training and other infrastructure investments like waterway dredging. Late yesterday, the Senate Budget COPS Grants Coming Soon Committee approved the Chairman’s budget resolution by a vote of 12-10. It now heads to the Senate floor for a full vote. We've had a number of conversations with the COPS Office For more, click on Senate Budget Plan. in the last several days and the good news we learned is that the chances are strong for solicitation from their office for While we are on the subject of the FY14 budget, a letter was applications for COPS Hiring Grants very soon. The actual sent to the House and Senate Budget committees from a Washington Friday Report 1 www.simoncompany.com 1660 L Street, N.W. Suite 501 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 659-2229 Fax (202) 659-5234 [email protected] ITEM IV C coalition of local government groups, including the U.S. purpose grants, which provide greater certainty for long-term Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities, project financing. In addition, the legislation identifies among others. It calls on the House and Senate to maintain the opportunities for waterfront properties and brownfield sites federal tax-exemption on municipal bond interest as a way to help appropriate for clean energy development, allows grant local governments finance projects that grow the nation’s recipients to collect administrative costs, and provides economy. For more, click on Muni Bond Letter to Congress. technical assistance to small, rural, and disadvantaged communities. States would also be eligible for additional Violence Against Women Act Becomes Law targeted funding. Lastly, the bill would reauthorize the program at current levels through FY16. Since the inception of the Thursday last week, President Obama signed the Violence Brownfields Program, EPA has provided approximately $1.5 Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) into law billion in grants, which have leveraged $19.2 billion in (PL 113-4). The law strengthens programs and policies meant to additional investment. For more, click on Brownfields prevent domestic and sexual violence and protect victims, Reauthorization. ensuring continued services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. It extends funding for VAWA programs from A Senate WRDA Agreement FY14 through to FY18, and includes new protections for all victims of domestic violence, adding protection for tribal victims, Chairman Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member David immigrant victims, and LGBT victims. Packaged along with Vitter of the Senate Environment and Public Works VAWA, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which expired in Committee (EPW) have reached an agreement on a Water September 2011, was reauthorized for four years, through to Resources Development Act (WRDA) reauthorization that FY17. For more, click on White House Statement or Sen. Leahy could be marked up in committee as early as Wednesday. Their Statement. draft bill is expected to be released today. The draft bill would prioritize some waterway projects for streamlined Senate Panel Approves Gun Bills environmental reviews, and would create a pilot program that would let the Corps hand off management of some projects to The Senate Judiciary Committee has completed work on four state and local governments. More on WRDA next week! gun violence bills. Most notably, yesterday, it passed Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (S. 150) by a MAP-21 Progress Report party-line vote of 10 to 8. The bill would ban the sale, transfer, and importation of certain “assault weapons” which include a Yesterday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure number of popular semi-automatic assault rifles such as the AR- Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit held a 15 and the Bushmaster XM15. The bill also limits the magazine hearing “Implementing MAP-21: Progress Report from U.S. capacity of semiautomatic rifles and handguns to 10 rounds. DOT Modal Administrators.” Witnesses included FTA Senator Feinstein said, “Assault weapons and large-capacity Administrator Peter Rogoff and FHWA Administrator Victor magazines have a single purpose—to kill as many people as Mendez. For more, click on Hearing Press Release or Webcast possible, as quickly as possible... It’s time we step up and address and Witness Testimony. this scourge once and for all.” Last week, the same committee approved measures that would expand background checks for Transit Surge gun sales (S. 374) and would reduce gun trafficking (S. 54). For more, click on Sen. Leahy Press Release, Sen. Feinstein Press The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has Release, or Hearing Website. announced that a record 10.5 billion trips were taken on public transit systems in 2012, the second highest annual ridership The fourth gun violence measure approved by the committee since 1957, despite Hurricane Sandy. This was 154 million earlier this week was Senator Barbara Boxer’s School and more trips than in 2011. In 2012, light rail ridership increased Campus Safety Enhancements Act (S. 146). It was approved by a by 4.5 percent throughout the U.S., large bus systems increased vote of 14 to 4. The bill would authorize $40 million each year by 1 percent, and demand response (paratransit) ridership from FY14 to FY23 through the Secure Our Schools grant increased by 4.5 percent.
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