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Category: Legislation

Spending Details Now Available

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The Senate Appropriations Committee has made available the details of the spending bills it cleared yesterday.

The text of the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill is available here and a copy of the report is available here.

The committee has also posted the Interior spending measure and the accompanying report.

With respect to what is in the bills, the Senate CJS legislation would:

  • Fund the National Science Foundation at $8.32 billion, an increase of $242 million above the current level.
    • Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities Account would receive $6.77 billion, an increase of approximately $250 million above current levels.
    • Activities funded through the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account would be funded at $253 million, which is $42.5 million below the current level.  The committee funds the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope at the Administration-requested level.
    • Education and Human Resources would see a total of $937 million under this bill.
  • Fund NASA at $22.75 billion, $1.25 billion above the FY2019 level.
    • The Science Mission Directorate would be funded at $6.91 billion.
      • Within Science, the bill proposes to fund the various accounts in the following manner:
        • Earth Science:  $1.945 billion
        • Planetary Science:  $2.631 billion
        • Astrophysics:  $1.171 billion
          • $445.7 million for WFIRST
        • Heliophysics:  $735.0 million
      • Aeronautics:  $725.0 million
      • Space Technology:  $926.9 million
      • STEM Engagement:  $112.0 million
        • Space Grant:  $47.0 million

The Interior Appropriations Bill also funds a number of agencies, programs, and accounts of interest to UW as well.  For example, the committee-approved bill would fund the National Endowment for the Humanities at $157.0 million, $2 million above the current level.

In addition, the bill also funds, among other agencies and programs, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Within USGS, the report includes the following language with respect to the Climate Adaptation Science Centers:

The new Climate Adaption Science Center sub activity receives $44,488,000. The recommendation includes funding to maintain the fiscal year 2019 levels for the Centers. It is the Committee’s expectation that funding will be distributed according to the allocation methodology in previous years ensuring all Centers remain open and at current levels.

It also contains the following text with respect to the early earthquake warning system:

Natural Hazards.—The bill includes $170,838,000 for Natural Hazards programs. Within the Earthquake Hazards program, the Committee continues to support the multitude of regional earthquake initiatives, but is concerned about the budget structure for each network as it relates to operations, maintenance, and infrastructure; therefore, the Committee directs the Survey to report back within 90 days after enactment of this act with a breakdown of funding between the operations, maintenance, and infrastructure expenditures in 2018 and 2019 along with recommendations on how to better structure the funding for these initiatives. This recommendation provides funding to ensure all the regional networks receive 2019 base funding level for operations and maintenance, including earthquake early warning and the Central and Eastern USNetwork [CEUSN]. Within these amounts, the Committee directs that regional networks which recently acquired the USArray stations from the National Science Foundation receive $3,000,000 for the operations and maintenance as these networks work to incorporate and use all Earthscope data. On top of base operations and maintenance for each network, the recommendation includes $17,500,000 for equipment and infrastructure costs. The Committee is also concerned that the updates to the national seismic hazard maps do not consistently include all 50 States and directs the Survey to update these maps for all 50 States, not just the lower 48, and provides $2,000,000 for this effort.

The Committee is concerned about the lack of knowledge and real time instrumentation available for the Cascadia subduction zone; therefore, the Committee encourages the continued development of a system for Cascadia that will help prepare for and mitigate the negative human and economic impacts of a major seismic event.

The Cooperative Research Units, also funded by the USGS, would receive $18.4 million next year, the same amount as this year.

We will provide further details as the process moves forward.

UW Joins Call for Congressional Action on DACA

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On Friday, August 30th UW signed a letter, alongside nearly 600 other US higher education institutions, urging Congress to take swift, bipartisan action on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The letter was circulated by The American Council on Education and is addressed to leadership in both the House and Senate. DACA provides a two-year protection from deportation for undocumented persons who arrived in the United States as children. The program has been suspended since September 2017, leaving recipients in limbo. The letter reminds Congress that the suspension of DACA is contrary to American interests and hinders a safe, positive, and productive academic environment. UW will continue to watch this issue closely and advocate for the interests of Dreamers on our campuses.

A full text of the letter is available here.

Three Week Deal…Some Ancillary Fixes

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As part of the three week deal signed into law on Saturday, the measure (H.J.Res. 28) would reopen the nine Cabinet departments and several independent agencies closed during the shutdown through February 15. Beyond funding these agencies, there were other significant items included in this agreement.

Back Pay

Federal employees will receive back pay as part of the agreement. Most employees should be expect to receive their two missed paychecks by the end of the week. Government contractors may or may not receive missed pay depending on the nature of their contract. States or grantees that helped fill the gap during the shutdown can expect to be reimbursed.

Conference Committee

As part of the agreement, the House and Senate will convene a conference committee to work out a deal on FY 2019 Homeland Security spending, including the fate of the Administration’s demand for $5.7 billion for border wall construction, which is spending Congressional Democrats have long opposed.

Pay-Go

Under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (PL 111-139), the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  is supposed to issue a report within 14 days after the end of a Congressional session outlining whether enacted laws added to the deficit over five or 10 years. If so, then the OMB has to implement across-the-board cuts to any programs not exempt from the statute, to eliminate the excess.

Routinely, since the 2010 law was enacted, Congress has simply decreed that certain pricey provisions will not be added. For example, Congress removed the impact of the $1.5 trillion, 10-year tax cuts from the OMB’s calculations as part the 2017 stopgap appropriations bill both were signed into law the same day.

The stopgap spending bill includes provisions delaying roughly $800 million in spending cuts, mainly (about 90 percent) impacting Medicare. Because Congress did not act in time, the OMB should have had to implement the cuts, but the shutdown delayed implementation.

That Pay-Go “debit” will pop up again next year unless Congress eliminates it once again on any FY 2019 final package. A House-passed, $271.8 billion package (HR 648) of six appropriations measures would have wipe out the scorecard’s existing debit, so only future legislation increasing deficits would count for the OMB’s calculations.

 

But Will He Sign It?

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Following the Senate’s lead from last week, the House cleared yesterday the massive spending package that combines the annual Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills by a vote of 361-61.  The Senate approved it by a vote of 93 to 7.  The bill also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund through December 7 the other agencies and programs whose funding bills are not signed into law by next Monday.

Earlier this week, there had been some uncertainty about whether the president would actually sign the package because it did not contain the funding his wants for a border wall along the Southern border.  It now appears that he will indeed sign it.

The CR could now apply to a larger number of bills– seven– than originally hoped for.  House and Senate negotiators have spent the last several weeks trying to reach a compromise on a combined package of four more appropriations measures and it remains uncertain at this point whether an agreement can be reached and signed into law before the House recesses on Friday.  Among the bills under discussion are those that would fund the departments of Interior and Agriculture.

First Spending Bills to be Cleared by Friday?

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The conference report for the package that contains the first three appropriations bills of FY2019– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– was quickly adopted by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 92 to 5.  An agreement between the House and Senate negotiators was reached on it earlier this week.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later today and is expected to clear it by Friday, clearing it for the President’s signature.  As noted above, these three bills, if signed into law, would represent the first spending bills approved for FY2019, which starts on Oct 1.

On a related note, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to formally meet today on two other sets of spending bills.  The first combines the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Defense bills and second pulls together the Interior, Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services bills.