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Category: Appropriations

Progress and Potential Stumbling Blocks Seen on FY2019 Spending

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While the House is now enjoying its five-week long August recess, the Senate still remains in session this week and appears to be on track to pass a four-bill spending package by Friday. The measure will include Senate versions of two House-passed bills– Interior and Financial Services– as well as the Agriculture and Transportation-Housing Urban Development bills.  If the Senate approves the four-bill vehicle, it will have cleared seven of the 12 spending bills for FY2019, while the House has adopted six to date.

While each chamber continues to make progress on its own versions of bills, potential stumbling blocks to bills being signed into law remain.  For example, while the two chambers are currently trying to reach an agreement on an already-adopted package of three bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– progress has been halted because the two sides cannot agree on the amount of money that is available for each bill.

In addition, President Trump earlier this week tweeted that he would advocate for a government shutdown if he does not get what he wants on “border security.”  This comes after Republican Congressional leaders earlier stated that they would not support such a move.  It remains unclear what the president ultimately wants.

Second Spending Package Clears House

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After three days of debating amendments on the floor, the House passed this morning a spending package that includes the FY2019 Interior and Financial Services appropriations bills.  This morning’s action means that half of the 12 annual spending bills have now cleared the House.

On a related note, the last of the House appropriations bills, the Homeland Security funding bill, is scheduled to be marked up in subcommittee today.  The markup is expected to be contentious as a result of a number of controversies, such as those surrounding family separations at the border and the Administration’s push for funding for a border wall.

 

Labor-HHS Spending Bill Clears House Committee

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After an all-day markup, the FY2019 House Labor-HHS-Education bill was cleared by the Appropriations Committee last night. The committee’s adoption of the bill means that 11 of the 12 spending bills have cleared the House Appropriations Committee; the Senate committee has cleared all of its bills.

The 13-hour markup was contentious at times, with heated debates on a number of issues, including child separation.  Of the roughly 50 amendments offered and debated during the session, a significant number of them focused on child separation practices at the border.

Although the bill has now cleared the committee process, it is unclear at this point whether it will see floor action in the near future.

A copy of the bill is available here and the accompanying report is available here.

 

 

Senate Defense Spending Bill Details Now Available

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Research programs funded by the Defense Department would fare relatively well under the FY2019 Defense spending bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.  The report that outlines the spending details for the bill is available here.

In the report, the committee calls out the importance of basic research in the defense enterprise.  The report reads, in part:

Basic Research.—The Committee understands that basic research is the foundation for Department of Defense innovation and future technologies. As the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) recently testified before the Committee: ‘‘The Department of Defense has the third largest investment among Federal agencies in basic research at U.S. universities, who have, through years of continued investments, been the source of many of today’s transformational technologies. Traditionally, the Department has viewed the role of universities as producing the research innovation, the Department of Defense labs as the mechanism to nurture these findings and to render them defense-applicable, and the defense industrial base to integrate these new technologies into acquisition programs.’’ Accordingly, the Committee recommends a total basic research investment of $2,798,456,000, an increase of $529,280,000 above the fiscal year 2019 budget request. This includes an additional $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Army; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Navy; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force; and $100,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide.

The Basic Research portfolio would be divided up in the following manner:

  • Army:  $582.6 million
  • Navy:  $737.9 million
  • Air Force:  $642.8 million
  • Defense-wide:  $835.1 million

Funds for the Applied Research portfolio would be allocated in the following manner under this bill:

  • Army:  $1,166 billion
  • Navy:  $1,027 billion
  • Air Force:  $1,430 billion
  • Defense-wide:  $1,953 billion

As noted above, additional details are available in the report.