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Category: Appropriations

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.

Idea Floating for New Research-Funding Entity

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is considering a draft proposal for a new entity which would spend $100 billion over five years on research related to artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and 5G technology. The tentative name for the proposed organization is the “National Science and Technology Foundation”. It would be a subsidiary of the National Science Foundation and would work in concert with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For context, NSF’s annual budget is currently $8.1 billion.

The idea comes from the interim report, published November 4th, from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which was a commission established through the FY2019 National Defense Authorization bill (P.L. 115-232).

The US is competing fiercely with Russia and China to be the global leader in artificial intelligence, so this organization would be closely tied to US national security.

The proposal is still in the earliest stages of development, and it has not been decided how the organization will be structured or if it will continue to operate after the initial five year period.

Read more about the proposal here.

One Step At A Time

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After having agreed to take it up late last week, the Senate passed this afternoon a four-bill appropriations package by a vote of 84 – 9.  The bundle, a Senate substitute to a House-passed bill, includes the following FY2020 funding bills:  Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; Interior; and Transportation – Housing and Urban Development.  This represents the first four spending bills passed by the Senate for the current fiscal year, which started October 1.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped that the passage of the first bundle would led to momentum to bring up a second package of bills that would include, among others, the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures.  The Democrats have continuously objected to the two bills moving because of the DOD funds that would be used to build a Southern wall and fights over language on abortion in and the perceived lack of enough funding for the Labor-HHS bill.  After the Senate agreed to the first four bills, it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to get cloture to move forward on the second set of bills.  The vote was 51 -41.

Although the Senate has now passed four appropriations bills, there still is no agreement between the two chambers on how much funding is available overall for FY2020.  The top line must be agreed to first before compromises on individual bills can be reached.

 

Cloture Filed on Appropriations Measure

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Last night, Senator McConnell filed cloture last night on a motion to proceed to H.R. 2740, which you may recall is the most expansive/expensive of all the spending packages and includes Labor-HHS, Defense, State/Foreign Ops, and Energy and Water.  A successful vote on Wednesday means that the Senate floor debate could begin on this bill with new text from the Senate Republicans. The consideration would not be without a fight from Senate Democrats who want more of their priorities included in the bill and higher spending numbers for the Labor-HHS bill.

A Step Forward

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By a vote of 92 to 2, the Senate yesterday agreed to debate a package of four FY2020 spending bills.  As noted yesterday, the bundle is a Senate substitute to a set of House-passed bills and includes the following measures:  Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.

Even if the Senate does ultimately approve the package, what happens after that still remains a mystery, as the second set of bills that may be considered contains some of the most controversial ones, including the Defense and Labor-HHS measures.

The continuing resolution signed into law in late September runs out November 22.