97 bills...

What Congress actually did in 2017

It wasn't all partisan gridlock: 97 bills made it into law this year. Here's what you might have missed.

By DANNY VINIK

April 4, 2017, wasn’t an especially notable day for news. But it was a big day for America’s meteorologists.

That Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives quietly passed legislation to overhaul the nation’s weather forecasting system, sending to President Donald Trump’s desk the first big revamp of that critical piece of national infrastructure in more than two decades. The 98-page bill authorized more than $170 million worth of investment, including innovative projects like a set of microsatellites to watch for severe weather events and track space weather. The upgrades not only affect meteorologists but are expected to help save lives through better storm planning, smarter disaster response and more reliable weather predictions weeks or even months in advance.

In Washington, it’s fair to say almost nobody noticed the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act. The headlines, instead, were Neil Gorsuch’s nomination moving through the Senate, and the repeated White House attempts to revive its stalled Obamacare repeal. Two weeks later, when Trump signed the weather bill into law—a moment of bipartisan success even as Democrats assailed his administration for its few tangible accomplishments—the White House sent a cursory, 49-word email with the news. There was no signing ceremony, no prime-time coverage.

In an era of congressional dysfunction, it’s a perennial frustration for lawmakers on Capitol Hill that much of the stuff they do get done is often just ignored. That’s par for the course in a city where politics is covered as a blood sport and policy as a wonky sideline—and some say the problem has become even more extreme this year, as Trump often ignores the chance to highlight minor triumphs of good government in favor of meaningless publicity events and Twitter feuds.

That’s not to say that 2017 has been a triumph of productivity. Over the past decade, nearly each successive congress has taken the mantle of “least productive,” measured by laws enacted, and the 115th Congress is likely to be no different: It’s on pace to enact the fewest laws in at least 40 years. GOP leaders spent most of the year just trying to get their own party in line on its big priorities, not all of which got done even with full control of Washington. In between, lawmakers have repeatedly struggled to even keep the government open, the legislature’s most basic annual responsibility and one that has become a never-ending source of last-minute drama.

But behind its partisan battles and legislative dysfunction, the 115th Congress still managed to quietly pass into law 74 bills and 23 joint resolutions, which carry the weight of law. Those 97 laws make meaningful policy changes—from overhauling education benefits for veterans to expanding a program to detect hearing loss in young children—that touch on every corner of the country.

So, besides the weather forecasting law, what other major policy changes did Congress make this year with little attention? The full list is available here. Here’s a look at seven bills passed by Congress and signed by Trump that you may never have heard about—but which carry real implications for millions of Americans:

1. A new mission for NASA
The United States is sending humans to Mars—at least, it’s developing a plan to do so.

The NASA Transition Authorization Act, which Trump signed into law in February, refreshes the space agency’s long-term mission with, among other changes, a new requirement that it develop an operational plan and cost estimate for sending humans to the red planet by 2023. The 148-page bill was the first NASA reauthorization in seven years and made a number of other smaller changes to the agency, including mandating that NASA treat spaceflight-related health problems for any former astronauts for life; prioritizing the use of its own launch vehicles or those of commercial companies over foreign entities, particularly Russia; and creating a number of reports on everything from the danger of killer asteroids to its plans for a rare nuclear fuel, called plutonium-238.

2. Overhauling GI benefits
In the biggest reform of education benefits for veterans in decades, Congress passed the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Education Assistance Act in August, a 68-page bill that combined 18 separate bills into one, with numerous reforms long sought by veterans’ advocates. Most notably, the law eliminates the 15-year time limit for veterans to use their education benefits—the main reason the bill was nicknamed the “Forever GI Bill.” It also expands education benefits to any service member who receives a Purple Heart—regardless of how long he or she served—and provides extra money for veterans who pursue a degree in science technology, engineering or math, a small incentive to help America’s shortage of STEM workers.

3. Reforming VA civil service rules
It’s hard to think of piece of legislation that is less sexy than reforms to the government’s personnel rules, a subject that can bore even the most careful Congress-watchers. But a bill reforming civil service rules at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which Trump signed into law in June, caught the eye of many administrative experts. The changes were the culmination of years of work by lawmakers who were frustrated at the department’s inability to fire workers responsible for the scandal at VA hospitals in 2014.

The reforms create a new office to provide protection to whistleblowers and significantly reduce the time needed to fire VA employees, a process that previously could take months, if not years. Agencies often decided it wasn’t even worth the effort. Under the new law, the review process remains largely the same for most employees—it changes more for senior executives—but the time allotted for filing an appeal is sharply reduced. Perhaps more importantly, the law also lowers the burden of proof necessary for firing employees. The changes were opposed by groups representing federal employees, but the bills sailed through Congress, passing by a voice vote in the Senate and 368-55 in the House.

Reforms to a single agency’s civil service rules may seem like a minor legislative change. But experts are carefully watching how the agency implements the new rules as something of an experiment to see whether they should be implemented across government. As the scandal at VA hospitals showed, the quality of federal employees can have a major impact on the lives of individual Americans. Civil service reforms might not be sexy, but they’re critical to an effective government.

4. Detecting hearing problems in young children
In a year of attacks on expansive health programs—Obamacare came under sustained assault, and Congress let the crucial Children’s Health Insurance Program languish—at least one got a boost. In 2000, Congress created a new program within the Department of Health and Human Services to provide states money to expand access to screenings for hearing loss for newborns and infants, a victory for child health advocates. Over the next 15 years, the share of newborns screened for hearing loss rose from 44 percent to 97 percent. But under the statutory language, the program was available only to newborns and infants, an undefined age group that generally refers to babies under a year old.

In October, Congress officially expanded eligibility for the program to kids under the age of 3, enabling states to expand access to screenings for hearing loss. Public health advocates cheered the passage of the 15-page bill, which also reauthorized research into early detection of hearing problems, among other small tweaks to the 17-year old program—small but vital changes to a little-known health program.

5. Russia sanctions
Just before its August recess, Congress delivered something of a bipartisan rebuke to Trump by imposing new sanctions on Russia for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a rare instance of legislative pushback from Republicans toward their own president. The closely watched bill was sure to cause anxiety in the White House, where Trump has promised friendlier relations with Russia, and continued to cast doubt on concerns that Moscow might have interfered in the presidential election. It wasn’t even clear whether Trump would actually sign the bill.

But faced with the threat of an embarrassing veto override—the bill passed 98-2 in the Senate and 419-3 in the House—Trump finally signed the legislation into law on August 2. Most notably, the sweeping 184-page bill put a new handcuff on the president, requiring him to get approval from Congress for terminating sanctions against Russia and directing the State Department to create a list of Russian entities sanctioned under the bill by October 1. (The department eventually released the list nearly a month late.) It also gave the president more authority to impose sanctions on Iran and North Korea. In a Congress marked by hyperpartisan fights over health care and taxes, the sanctions bill was a remarkable moment of bipartisan agreement.

6. The annual defense bill
Every year without fail, for 55 years, even in the most polarized of times, Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act, a massive bill that recommends a certain level of spending for the Pentagon—though it doesn’t actually provide the money—and makes a wide array of policy changes. This year was no different, as the House and Senate finished up work on the defense authorization bill just a few weeks ago.

The law requests nearly $626.4 billion in base spending for fiscal 2018, blowing through the $529 billion cap on defense spending set by the 2011 Budget Control Act. (It also includes an additional $65.7 billion in a separate Pentagon account that is exempt from the caps.) That means that many of the priorities and new policies in this year’s NDAA depend on the ultimate spending deal between Democratic and Republican leaders, which remains in flux.

So, what’s actually in it? The law authorizes a 2.4 percent pay hike for the troops, 90 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and 24 Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets. It also authorizes 13 new ships as well as the procurement of a new heavy icebreaker for the Coast Guard. It increases money for missile defense, creates a new initiative to boost America’s military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and, in what seems an affront to Trump’s “America First” agenda, it curtails the “Buy America” provision for certain items, including photovoltaic devices. Trump signed the 740-page bill into law anyway, on December 12.

7. A small gift to Uber and Lyft
Not every new law has groundbreaking implications: The six-page Modernizing Government Travel Act allows federal employees to be reimbursed for their travel on a “transportation network company”—think an Uber or Lyft ride. It’s a small update to the government’s travel rules, opening up a new market to the so-called sharing economy companies and a new travel option for government workers. The legislation didn’t receive a single "no" vote in either house, appealing to good government lawmakers who want to encourage public employees to save money through Uber or Lyft and tech-supporters who approve of the beleaguered sharing-economy companies.