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Category: Appropriations

FY 2017 Omnibus Released

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At 2 am last night, House and Senate appropriators released the FY 2017 Omnibus, which  comprises the 11 unfinished FY 2017 appropriations bills, providing fresh spending instructions for nearly every corner of the federal government and formally appropriates more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending for FY 2017, in keeping with the spending limits agreed to last year. A high level overview is below.

Overall, the FY 2017 Omnibus provides an annualized total of $1.07 trillion in base spending for FY 2017, or $1.16 trillion including Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. Beyond the top line, and widely reported, the FY 2017 Omnibus includes a $2 billion increase to NIH or a 6.2 percent increase over current levels. The deal includes an extra $1.5 billion to enhance border security, but there is no money to begin construction of Trump’s wall along the Mexican border.  Additionally, appropriators absolutely rejected about $18 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary programs that Trump had suggested to avoid further expanding the deficit in his FY 2017 supplemental request. To boost funding for the military and border security, lawmakers increased by $15 billion the OCO spending, which does not count against statutory budget cap.

While the budget numbers will look big on paper, they will have less meaning in the real world because most of the money to be formally appropriated has already been spent, since there are only five months remaining in the current FY 2017, which runs through Sept. 30.

The most recent stopgap (H.J.Res. 99), enacted Friday, keeps the government open through May 5. The Omnibus legislation could see a House could vote as soon as Wednesday. Once the Omnibus passes the House, it will move on to the Senate.

The legislation did resolve a significant amount of big political sticking points, including:

  • provide a permanent fix for a depleted health fund needed by thousands of retired coal miners;
  • shore up Puerto Rico’s troubled Medicaid program with an extra $295 million;
  • provide $2 billion in disaster relief for California, West Virginia, Louisiana and North Carolina;
  • combat wildfires with an extra $407 million;
  • $68 million to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for the costs of protecting Trump and his family, predominantly in Manhattan;
  • provide $100 million to combat opioid abuse; and
  • preserve federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

 

 

Labor-H

                Health Provisions

  • NIH — $34.1 billion (+$2.0 million)
    • Fogarty Center receives $72,213,000 (+$1.7 million)
  • AHRQ received: $324,000,000 (Slight cut of ~$8 million)
  • SAMSHA — $3.6 billion (+ $130.5 million above the previous Administration’s budget request. Includes an increase of $150 million for treatment of opioid and heroin programs)
  • CDC – $7.3 billion (+ $22 million above the fiscal year 2016 enacted level. This includes $6.3 billion in appropriated funds, as well as $891 million in transfers from the Prevention and Public Health Fund.)
    • NIOSH– $335.2M (about + $4M)
  • ERC Program $29 million (+$500 thousand)
  • AFF Program $25.5 million (+$500 thousand)
    • Chronic Disease Prevention — $1.112 billion ($777.6 million in discretionary, $338.0 million in transfers)
  • Prevention research centers — $25.5 M
  • Worker Health will receive “not less than FY16 levels”
  • HRSA — $6.4 billion for HRSA (+ $77 million)
    • Health Professions Title VII – $301M (- , but language below in dentistry
    • Nursing Title VIII — $229 million (level)
  • National Institute of Nursing Research receives $150,273,000 for nursing research.

Report language of note:

NIH

“Funding from the 21st Century Cures Act was previously appropriated for fiscal year 2017 by section 194 of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2017. Per the authorization, $300,000,000 is transferred to the National Cancer Institute for cancer research and $52,000,000 will be allocated from the NIH Innovation Fund, in this agreement reflected in the Office of the Director, for the Precision Medicine Initiative cohort ($40,000,000), the BRAIN Initiative ($10,000,000), and regenerative medicine research ($2,000,000).”

 

Education Provisions

  • IES — $605.267 million (- $13 million)
  • GEAR Up — $339.7 million (+$17 million)
  • TRIO — $950 million (+$50 million)
  • Pell
    •  Maximum award will be increased to $5,935, funded by a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds
    • Year-round Pell restored
    • $1.3 B in surplus reallocated
  • Title VI international– $72.2 million (flat)

 

Report language of note:

TRIO:

“There is concern that the Department has rejected and made ineligible for review several fiscal year 2017 grant applications based on minor formatting issues. The Department is strongly encouraged to provide flexibility to such applicants by permitting submission of a corrected application. The Department should include consistent formatting requirements across all TRIO competitions in the future.”

 

Defense

Research Accounts:

6.1:  $2.28 Billion (level)

6.2:  $5.30 billion (+$30 million)

 

USDA

AFRI — $375 million (+$25 million)

McIntire-Stennis — $33.9 million (level)

 

CJS

  • NSF– $7.4 overall
    • MREFC– $209.0 Million (+$8.7 million, $121.9 million for 3 research vessels)
  • NOAA
    •  Integrated Ocean Observing System– $30.7 million (+$1.2 million)
  • Adopts IOOS language from both bills (will need to go through again) and encourages use of HF radars
    • OAR CI’s– $60.0 M (level)
    • Sea Grant– $63.0 M (- $10.0 M)
  • NASA
    • Space Grant– $40.0 M (level)
    • Earth Science– $1.92 B (level)

E&W

  • EERE — $761 million (+$40 million)
    • Water Power Energy R&D $84 million (+$14 million)
  • ARPA-E — $276 million (+$15 million)
  • Office of Science – $5.4 billion (+$40 million)
    • Fusion — $330 million (+$7 million)

 

Interior

  • EPA Science and Technology — $91.9 million (-$9 million)
    The bill provides $713,823,000 to be partially offset by a $7,350,000 rescission for a net discretionary appropriation of$706,473,000. The bill transfers $15,496,000 from the Hazardous Substance Superfund account to this account.

    • Chemical safety and sustainability – $ 126.9 million (-$9 million)
    • National priorities — $4.1 million (-$10 million, but over the FY2017 request of $0)
    • Safe and sustainable water resources — $106.2 million (-$1.1 million)
    • Sustainable and healthy communities — $ 134.3 million (-$5.6 million)
  • USGS
    • CRU’s– $17.4 million (level)
    • Earthquake Early Warning– $10.2 M (+ $2 M)
  • NEH– $149.8 million (+$1.9 million)

 

 

House Scraps ACA Vote, House and Senate Pass One Week CR

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Late last night, House Republican leadership decided to forego a vote on the ACA amendment by Rep. Tom MacArthur circulated earlier this week. MacArthur, who is the leader of the moderate Republican Tuesday Group, would shift how individuals with preexisting conditions are insured to the states. The amendment won the support of the conservative House Freedom Caucus by loosening insurance mandates, but didn’t gain many moderates. Additionally, the House Democrats announced that if the House voted on the amendment, Democrats would all vote against the much-needed, short-term CR to keep the government open though midnight Friday.

This morning, the House of Representatives passed the one-week CR to keep the government operating. It is an necessary step to avert a shutdown as negotiators continue to work on an agreement to extend funding through the remainder of the year via an omnibus appropriations measure.

The Senate unanimously passed a stopgap spending bill, about an hour after the measure was overwhelmingly approved by the House.

The bill funds the government for one week, avoiding a government shutdown at midnight. Lawmakers plan to pass a broader spending package next week to fund the government through September.

Another Short-Term Funding Measure Unveiled

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In order to buy more time for the two parties, the two chambers, and Congress and the White House to negotiate with each other on a spending package for the remainder of FY2017, Congressional leaders have unveiled a short-term measure that would keep the government funded for another week. Without an extension, the current funding agreement expires at midnight this Saturday.

The short-term measure would extend funding through next Friday, May 5.

White House Rolls Back Shutdown Demands on Border Wall, Okays Subsidies

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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Hill look closer to a deal as the Trump Administration has backed down on demands for a downpayment on the border wall in FY 2017. The decision by Trump to postpone a battle over wall funding until the fall, if necessary, came as a victory for Democrats who oppose a wall and a comfort for Republican negotiators who were given more freedom to maneuver to get a deal in place that would prevent a government shutdown. 

A bigger sticking point has been the ACA subsidies. This afternoon, the White House has said that it will continue paying Affordable Care Act cost-sharing subsidies, removing the biggest remaining hurdle in the negotiations to avoid a government shutdown.

Negotiations continue, but a short term CR may still be in order.

Shut Down Show Down?

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Congress is back this week after a two week Passover/Easter Recess, and the first order of business is reaching some agreement to keep the government open beyond 12:01 am Saturday morning. Tensions over funding have risen during the recess as the Administration has begun a hard push for more defense money and a significant amount ($1.4 billion) to begin work on a wall along the Mexican border. Initially, OMB Director Mulvaney had insinuated that the lack of funding for the Administrations priorities (in both the FY2017 supplemental request and the FY2018 skinny budget) would result in a veto. In recent days, however, Administration officials generally have stopped short of insinuating the President would veto any FY2017 measure not including these funds.

Democrats in the House and Senate have been very vocal that including any funding for a border wall is a nonstarter. Mulvaney has suggested that a path forward with Democrats would be including funding for insurance subsidies under Obamacare that are used to reduce the cost of co-payments and deductibles, which is something the Trump Administration has vowed to cut.

Realistically, Republican leadership in the House and Senate know that no continuing resolution (CR) or omnibus for FY2017 can pass either body without some Democratic support. Bottom line: Democratic cooperation is needed in the Senate for any spending deal to pass because 60 votes are required to advance legislation and Republicans control only 52 seats.

As negotiations continue to drag on, the more likely a short term is likely to move, simply to give Congress more time to negotiate a broader package or figure out a resolution for FY2017.

Additionally, House Republicans are working with the White House to try to revive a replacement plan for Obamacare as negotiations continue on a compromise that might win a majority vote. However, Members return to Capitol Hill this week with no sign of an imminent deal that would overcome objections from both moderate and conservative camps,

What’s driving this push? The Trump Administration’s first 100 days in office winds up on Saturday. Traditionally, the first 100 days of a new administration is the most active and influential (CNN has a good overview). While the Trump Administration has not been as successful legislatively as it would have liked, there have been successes in rolling back Obama Administration regulations and confirming a Supreme Court nominee. That said, Trump Administration officials would like a big win prior to Saturday and pushing some version of Obamacare repeal and a FY2017 are the two options being pushed right now.

Meanwhile, the debt ceiling is likely to make a summer appearance. Technically, the federal government exceeded its spending authority on March 15th. The Treasury has been using so-called extraordinary measures to extend the government’s borrowing capacity for several more months. That capacity should last until “sometime this fall” before Congress would need to raise the debt limit again, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has privately accelerated the timeframe for Congress to address the issue and raise the debt ceiling to some time this summer. This move would coincide with tax reform provisions (or perhaps still Obamacare repeal) that Congress would consider.

Stay tuned.