Bucking history, the new majority in the House is expected to take up as its first spending measure later this week the largest non-defense appropriations bill, the Labor-HHS-Education bill. Historically, when it has been taken up in the past, the bill has traditionally been one of the last ones to move because of the number of issues viewed as controversial by some, such as those related to healthcare. The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the bill this Tuesday afternoon, with the full committee expected to follow suit next week.
Even with the appropriations season is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday, there is still no agreement on how much money is actually available in total for FY2020. Earlier this year, the House Democrats introduced a bill that would increase spending caps in FY2020 to $664 billion for defense programs and $631 billion for non-defense program. The bill that gets taken up tomorrow is expected be written with the overall target of $631 billion for non-defense programs in mind.
Currently, without an agreement between Congress and the White House, the law stipulates that the total spending level for non-defense programs is capped at $543 billion. It is likely that negotiations about the overall spending limits will continue through the fall.