This Week on the Hill: Senators Look to Push Disaster Relief Funds Across the Finish Line

Congressional lawmakers will reconvene for a legislative business week later this afternoon prior to leaving Washington for a Memorial Day district work period. In the upper chamber, lawmakers will look to break the impasse over disaster relief funding. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated last week that the Senate will vote on disaster relief legislation after lawmakers and the White House reportedly struck a deal on aid for Puerto Rico as well as funding for “humanitarian needs” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite reports of progress on the disaster relief funds, it ultimately remains to be seen whether President Donald Trump will sign off on a final measure that is not in line with his requests on border funding and aid for Puerto Rico.

In the House, Democrats will look to roll back some of the Trump administration’s policies at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) prior to leaving Washington for a Memorial Day district work period. Democratic leadership has queued up a bill (H.R. 1500) out of the Financial Services Committee that would “promptly reverse all anti-consumer actions” made under former CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, including provisions that would require the Bureau’s consumer complaint database to remain public and eliminate the director’s ability to limit the legal reach of the fair lending office. The bill is expected to clear the lower chamber on party lines and is considered dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Also on the House floor this week, lawmakers will take up bipartisan retirement measure out of the Ways and Means committee. The comprehensive retirement savings package (H.R. 1994) up for consideration seeks to: (1) boost incentives for retirement savings; (2) allow small businesses to band together and start multi-employer 401(k)s; and (3) provide retirement eligibility for part-time workers who have worked at least 1,000 hours in one year. The most recent version of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act would also fix a glitch in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) by reducing taxes levied on military survivor benefits, but does not include a provision that would allow the expansion of Section 529 accounts to be used for home schooling costs and supplies — much to the chagrin of some House Republicans.