Yesterday the House approved a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was operating under a continuing resolution set to expire in February. The bill (HR 240) will provide $39.7 billion in discretionary funding for DHS and its component agencies, including $1.5 billion for state and local grant programs. While the bill passed the House, it was not without several controversial amendments. Many of those were aimed at blocking President Obama’s executive actions on immigration and requiring certain immigration enforcement tactics. The bill will have a harder time in the Senate. The White House has already issued a threat to veto the legislation due to the attached amendments on immigration.

Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) released a draft proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The draft bill, Every Child Ready for College or Career Act of 2015, proposes two potential paths for the HELP Committee to proceed down with regard to NCLB’s annual statewide assessment requirements.

  • (1) Grant states more flexibility in how they assess students, and these assessment plans would not be subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Education, or
  • (2) Retain the current assessment requirements (states must test students in grades 3-8 and once in high school). This would also give states the authority to create their own actions for failing schools. States would then create programs that would allow federal Title I grant funding to follow low-income students from school to school. The proposal, as is, would authorize $14.9 billion in annual funding for Title I grants to states – roughly $500 million above the current enacted level.

The House Judiciary Committee released a discussion draft with a proposal to allow states to collect sales taxes when residents make online purchases from out-of-state retailers. Under the proposal, states would be allowed to enter into a multistate agreement to collect sales tax on out-of-state purchases. Once a multistate agreement is in place, online retailers located in a member state would remit sales taxes to that state, based on that state’s sales tax rate and regardless of where the customer is located. The retailer’s state would then be responsible for distributing the sales tax income to the customer’s state. This approach differs from prior legislation, the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). The MFA authorizes all states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes at the customer’s state sales tax rate and remit this tax income directly to the customer’s state, regardless of where the retailer is located. The National Governors Association continues to push for Congress to pass the MFA, arguing that this approach is less burdensome.

Tuesday the House also passed the Regulatory Accountability Act (HR 185) by a strong margin. The legislation will impose new rulemaking requirements for federal agencies. The bill also establishes criteria for agencies issuing major guidance. The White House has issued a statement threatening to veto the legislation, arguing that it would impede the ability of federal agencies to protect the public and “create needless confusion and delay that would prove disruptive for businesses, as well as State, tribal and local governments.”