The Ferguson Group Blog

FEMA Announces First Round of Assistance to Firefighters Grant Winners

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has unveiled the first round of FY 2011 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) recipients.

AFG grants help firefighters and first responders to obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources needed to protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.

AFG awards will continue to be announced on a rolling basis into 2012 and until all AFG funds have been awarded. There was a total of $404,190,000 available through this program in FY 2011.

A list of round one grantees can be viewed here.

U.S. Department of Transportation Announces TIGER III Grant Awards

Last week, Secretary LaHood announced funding for 46 transportation projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico through the third round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) received 848 project applications from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, requesting a total of $14.29 billion, far exceeding the $511 million made available for grants under the TIGER III program. 

A complete list of grantees can be found here.

Megabus Spending Bill Passed by Congress

Late last week and over the weekend, Congress worked to reach a final agreement on the remaining Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 appropriations bills. On Friday, December 16^th, the House approved a “megabus” spending package (H.R. 2055, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012) that included nine of the twelve annual spending bills. The Senate cleared the same package on Saturday, December 17^th, sending the final appropriations bill of the year to President Obama for his signature. He is expected to sign the bill this week.

Both chambers, along with the President, also approved a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that extends federal funding through Friday, December 23^rd. The previous CR was set to expire last Friday and additional time was needed for final processing of the bill. 

The megabus appropriations bill includes a combined total of $915 billion for the Military Construction-VA, Defense, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations appropriations bills. When combined with the three-bill minibus appropriations package passed in November, the megabus package sets FY 2012 spending at the maximum level allowable under the $1.043 trillion discretionary spending cap established by the debt ceiling deal. 

In addition to the FY 2012 spending provided in the bill, Congress also approved $8.1 billion in disaster relief that provides funding for FEMA and the Corps of Engineers to help disaster-impacted communities.

House Passes Payroll Tax Extension

The House of Representatives passed legislation tonight that would extend for one year the employee payroll tax rate of 4.2%, extend unemployment insurance, and renew the "doc fix" that prevents cuts in reimbursements to doctors who see Medicare patients. However, the bill has little chance of being enacted because it also includes several provisions that Democrats have publicly opposed, including language that would speed up approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, authorize the Federal Communications Commission to auction new sections of the electromagnetic spectrum, and delay new EPA regulations for industrial boilers. The bill was passed on a largely partisan basis in the House, with 10 Democrats supporting the measure while 14 Republicans rejected it.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed that the legislation will not pass his chamber, and President Obama has threatened to veto the bill if it does. Both President Obama and Majority Leader Reid have strongly supported an extension of the payroll tax but are opposed to attaching other controversial provisions to the extension. Lawmakers from both parties are expected to work on a compromise that would extend the payroll tax for 2012 before leaving Washington for the holidays.

Bipartisan Proposal to Add Infrastructure Funding to Payroll Tax Cut

Washington has been consumed during the past week by debates over the fate of a payroll tax cut first created in 2010 as part of the compromise to extend the Bush tax cuts and currently set to expire at the end of 2011. The 2010 compromise reduced the Social Security tax paid by employees from 6.2% to 4.2% and President Obama has strongly supported extending and expanding this cut in 2012, along with a similar tax cut for employers. Although there is strong support in both the Senate and the House for some form of extension, if not an expansion of the tax cut, Republicans and Democrats have clashed on how to offset the loss in Social Security trust fund revenue that this measure will necessitate. Democrats have proposed replacing payroll tax revenue with a surcharge on income tax over $1 million, while Republicans have countered with a proposal to replace the revenue through cost saving measures, including a pay freeze for federal employees and the elimination of federal jobs.

As leadership in the Senate and House look for a way to bridge the gap between offset proposals, Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have introduced a bipartisan proposal that would not only expand the payroll tax cut to apply to both employees and employers in 2012, but would also include $35.8 billion in new spending for road and water infrastructure projects. This legislation would provide $10 billion for states to increase capitalization of state infrastructure banks, which leverage private funding to finance large infrastructure projects. It would also include $25 billion in new bridge and highway funding authority, which would be distributed through FHWA formula programs, as well as $800 million in new funding for the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds. The payroll tax cut and new spending would be paid for by a combination of an interest tax surcharge on millionaires and the elimination of tax breaks for large oil companies.

Democrat and Republican leaders continue to debate the payroll tax extension, and no proposal has yet obtained the support of both parties. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed his opposition to paying for the payroll tax cut by raising taxes on the wealthy, leaving the fate of the McCaskill-Collins proposal in doubt. However, Congress must act on some form of payroll tax extension by the end of the year or face a tax increase for all American workers.

D Block Legislative Developments

This week Representatives Eshoo and Waxman introduced the Wireless Innovation and Public Safety Act of 2011,  which is designed to create a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network and to provide the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with incentive auction authority to repurpose broadcast spectrum and fund the creation of the interoperable public safety broadband network.

Included in this legislation is a grant program for local governments that will support the implementation of Next Generation 911 services. This grant program would provide $250,000,000 over five years  for local governments to upgrade to Next Generation 9-1-1 services by enabling the delivery of voice, text, photos, video, and other data to 9-1-1 call centers.

House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden also unveiled related legislation, the Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011, this week. House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans and Democrats are negotiating to potentially reach consensus on the legislation. 

  Amanda Wood