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Category: Appropriations

What Do the Details Look Like?

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While the details have yet to be released, a deal on the 12 spending bills for FY2020 has been reached among the Congressional leaders themselves and, apparently, with the White House.  The deal would provide the Trump Administration $1.375 billion for a Southern wall, much less than the $5 billion it wanted; funding for the wall has been one of the biggest, but not the only, hurdles on the road to the passage of FY2020 appropriations bills.

The current fiscal year started October 1 and the current continuing resolution expires Saturday at midnight.

With negotiators and senior staff furiously working on the legislative text, the 12 bills are expected to be combined into two sizable legislative packages rather than a single gigantic piece of legislation. The House is expected to act first on the measures before sending them to the Senate.

We will provide details about the contents of these massive bills as they become available.

Shutdown Averted… For Now

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The Senate cleared and the President signed yesterday he second continuing resolution passed earlier this week by the House, averting a government shutdown, for now.  As noted before, this CR would buy the various negotiators more time– through December 20 this time– to figure out a path forward on how to fund the rest of FY2020, which started October 1.

House Approves 2nd CR

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The House approved yesterday afternoon the second continuing resolution by a vote of 231 to 192. It must now be cleared by both the Senate and the President before midnight Friday morning in order to prevent a government shutdown.

2nd CR Teed Up

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The House is scheduled to take up a second continuing resolution (CR) later today that would keep the federal government funded past midnight Friday morning, when the current CR expires. It must be passed and signed into law by Thursday night to avoid a shutdown.

The new CR would extend current funding for all federal agencies through Dec. 20 or just before the scheduled Christmas recess. in addition, the measure would temporarily extend three Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions through March 20, 2020, and take the provisions out of play for the resolution of FY2020. The measure would also extend numerous expiring health care programs that were temporarily renewed in the most recent stopgap law, such as funding for community health centers and teaching hospitals, as well other miscellaneous programs ranging from the higher education reauthorization law to the Export-Import Bank.

The measure is expected to pass both the House and Senate, but the White House has been a bit of an unknown. However, Administration officials have indicated that the President will likely sign the CR if it reached his desk.

Don’t Forget, the Current CR Expires Next Week

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While a large swath of Washington is preoccupied with the public impeachment hearings, which started earlier today, senior appropriators met yesterday to figure out a path forward on how to keep the government open past next Thursday.  The current continuing resolution, which has kept the federal government open since October 1, expires at midnight, November 22.

It appears that at least the top appropriators– in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle– have agreed to push for a second CR that would last through December 20.  The assumption is that such an agreement would buy Congress enough time pull together packages of spending bills for the rest of FY2020 before adjourning for the year.  the wildcard is the Trump White House and its insistence on funding for a border wall as well as the possible impact of impeachment on spending negotiations.

At the end of the day, funding for most parts of the government would run out next Friday without any further action by Congress and the White House.  Read more about the situation here.