MAJORITY WHIPLINE: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Floor Schedule and Procedure:

Suspensions (19 bills):

1. H.R. 4305 – PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act, as amended (Rep. Stivers – Veterans’ Affairs)

This bill calls for VA to establish a 5-year pilot program to make grants available to appropriate non-governmental entities for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of addressing post-deployment mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms through a therapeutic medium of training service dogs for veterans with disabilities.

1. H.R. 4044 – Protect and Restore America’s Estuaries Act, as amended (Rep. Malinowski – Transportation and Infrastructure)

This bill reauthorizes the National Estuary Program (NEP) within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through fiscal year 2026.

1. H.R. 1132 – San Francisco Bay Restoration Program, as amended (Rep. Speier – Transportation and Infrastructure)

This bill establishes and authorizes appropriations for a new regional program under the Clean Water Act to support restoration efforts in the San Francisco Bay.

1. H.R. 2247 – PUGET SOS Act, as amended (Rep. Heck – Transportation and Infrastructure)

   This bill establishes and authorizes appropriations for a new regional program office within EPA to support restoration efforts and activities in the Puget Sound, and coordinates Federal restoration efforts and activities within the Sound.

2. H.R. 1620 – Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization Act, as amended (Rep. Luria – Transportation and Infrastructure)

This bill reauthorizes appropriations for the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program with incremental increases over the next five years.

1. H.R. 4031 – Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019 (Rep. Joyce – Transportation and Infrastructure)

This bill reauthorizes the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative within the EPA for fiscal years 2022 through 2026.

1. H.R. 4275 – To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program, and for other purposes, as amended (Rep. Graves (LA) – Transportation and Infrastructure)

This bill reauthorizes appropriations for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin program and requires the comprehensive restoration plan for Lake Pontchartrain be reviewed and updated every five years.

1. H.R. 5214 – Representative Payee Fraud Protection Act of 2019 (Rep. Tlaib – Oversight and Reform)

   This bill protects recipients of Federal retiree benefits from unscrupulous caretakers. The bill closes a loophole in current law whereby the embezzlement or conversion of Social Security and Veterans’ benefits by representative payees is a Federal felony, but the same embezzlement or conversion of benefits provided to Federal retirees through the Federal retirement system is not.

2. H.R. 3830 – Taxpayer Right-to-Know Act, as amended (Rep. Walberg – Oversight and Reform)

This bill requires that certain information about each program administered by a federal agency be available to the public on a website operated by the Office of Management and Budget.

1. H.R. 3941 – FedRAMP Authorization Act, as amended (Rep. Connolly – Oversight and Reform)

   This bill codifies the FedRAMP Program at the General Services Administration.  It would authorize GSA to establish a governmentwide program to provide a standardized approach to security assessment and authorization for cloud computing products and services.

2. H.R. 2382 – USPS Fairness Act (Rep. DeFazio – Oversight and Reform)

   This bill eliminates the requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund the future health care costs of its retirees.

3. S. 375 – Payment Information Integrity Act of 2019 (Sen. Carper – Oversight and Reform)

   This bill consolidates the existing improper payment laws into one place in the U.S. Code and make changes to help agencies better identify and reduce improper payments.

4. S. 394 – Presidential Transition Act Enhancement Act of 2019 (Sen. Johnson – Oversight and Reform)

   This bill strengthens the presidential transition process by clarifying responsibilities of the General Services Administration and other agencies during a transition and by requiring presidential candidates to develop and publicly release ethics plans for their transition teams prior.

5. H.R. 3976 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 12711 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, as the “Aretha Franklin Post Office Building” (Rep. Lawrence – Oversight and Reform)
6. H.R. 4794 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 8320 13th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, as the “Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini Post Office Building” (Rep. Rose (NY) – Oversight and Reform)
7. H.R. 4981 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2505 Derita Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the “Julius L. Chambers Civil Rights Memorial Post Office” (Rep. Adams – Oversight and Reform)
8. H.R. 5037 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3703 North Main Street in Farmville, North Carolina, as the “Walter B. Jones, Jr. Post Office” (Rep. Murphy (NC) – Oversight and Reform)
9. H.R. 3317 – To permit the Scipio A. Jones Post Office in Little Rock, Arkansas, to accept and display a portrait of Scipio A. Jones, and for other purposes (Rep. Hill – Oversight and Reform)
10. H.R. 4279 – To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 445 Main Street in Laceyville, Pennsylvania, as the “Melinda Gene Piccotti Post Office” (Rep. Keller – Oversight and Reform)

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

John F. Kennedy