The House measure was put forward by GOP leaders to provide more time for Congress to complete the conferencing process that will forge a compromise from the long-term highway bills that have separately been passed by the House and Senate. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to write the Senate’s bill. And with terrorism fears on the rise, a top Democratic Senate aide noted that this time around, “public pressure will be different”.
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The Senate bill passed this summer with overwhelming support.
So far, however, no Senate Democrat has said he or she will vote for the House bill.
A US official on board Air Force One, carrying Obama to a Southeast Asian summit in Malaysia, said the measure would be signed by the White House in his absence.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, is now blocking progress on a spending bill for transportation and housing programs that is currently on the floor because he is insisting on getting a vote on his amendment that is aimed at preventing Syrian refugees from entering the United States.
The refugee issue was tied directly to concerns over the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has claimed credit for the Paris attacks and has prompted people to flee Iraq and Syria, where it controls territory.
Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., attacked his rival for a Senate seat, Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., for supporting the GOP bill. In addition, the bill passed by the House of Representatives to reauthorize the ESEA would severely undermine civil rights protections for underserved students. Though he broke with his party’s leadership, Lynch said he believes having the multi-level screening procedures will actually aid the White House’s goal of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees.
NCLB was “based on good intentions, but also the flawed premise that Washington should decide what kids need to excel in school”, said House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minnesota) at the meeting, which was streamed online.
The letter couched the proposal as a request, not a demand. And though new House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., hasn’t ruled out any approach, it seemed unlikely he would relish escalating the fight into a holiday-season shutdown battle with the president.
Reid said at a press conference that Democrats will block the legislation that requires the secretary of Homeland Security to affirm to Congress that every refugee being admitted is not a security threat. Most Democrats opposed the bill, but 47 voted in favor of it.
While individual homeowners are exempt from the caps, the inability of lawmakers to raise them is making it harder for larger projects and residents of apartment buildings to benefit from the program, advocates said.
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The language would shorten the window for public comment on infrastructure projects; reduce the current six-year statute of limitations on NEPA lawsuits to two years; and establish a commission to create an interagency council that would serve as a one-stop shop for major infrastructure projects that require federal permits, setting deadlines and establishing best practices for permitting reviews.
