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Today, the House voted 371 to 48 to pass HR 1301, the FY2017 Defense Department spending measure. The legislation replaces the continuing resolution for the Pentagon and falls well within the budget control law’s caps on overall defense spending with a total of $577.9 billion. That is is below the sequester levels may allow it to move through both chambers without too much opposition. The measure includes $61.8 billion for overseas operations, an account that is not limited by law. |
Category: Appropriations
Trump to Address Congress Tonight, Senate Approves Ross, and Zinke Up
Last night, the Senate confirmed another Cabinet nominee for Trump as it voted 72-27 to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary.
Ross is a 79-year-old businessman who made his fortune by turning around companies in distressed industries like textiles and steel and is expected to play a leading role in trade policy.
The Senate now turns to Interior Secretary nominee, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT). Out of the 15 primary federal department chiefs, Zinke looks like he will soon become the 11th Cabinet member confirmed. The Zinke nomination is expected to take the maximum amount of time possible similar to nearly every other Trump nominee.
Trump Address Congress,
Meanwhile, it’s a little over a month into his new Administration and President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress for the first time tonight at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific. While not an official State of the Union address, the new president’s first address to Congress traditionally has been a tone setting speech. Expect a speech from Trump that will offer his vision for the country, including his policy priorities, but will not likely be heavy on details.
The While House has previewed the speech and expect Trump to hit on such topics as: the coming Presidential Budget Request (PBR); recent antisemitic attacks; the White House and the media, including CNN and false reporting; Obamacare repeal and replacement; and an extreme vetting Executive Order (expected Wednesday).
See the White House preview here.
Meanwhile, the White House has said that the PBR will be previewed March 16th with something akin to a skinny budget, but the complete PBR will not be released until mid-May. The OMB, with newly approved OMB Director Mulvaney, began circulating top line numbers to agencies yesterday in preparation for a full budget preview and request. As those documents were circulating, the Trump PBR will call for $603 billion in military spending, which is a 2% boost from current levels. That sum would also represent a $54 billion, or 10%, increase over budget caps set in law. Additionally, the plans has no cuts coming from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The increase would come from the non discretionary defense portions of the budget.
Before the FY2018 PRB is released, the Trump Administration is expected to ask Congress for a $30 billion in supplemental defense spending via the Overseas Contingency Operations account that is not subject to the spending caps. It’s a move that’s been used by Congress previously.
An Increase of $54 Billion for Defense and Corresponding Cuts to Non-Defense Programs Sought
In its initial proposal outlining the Administration’s budget goals for FY2018, the White House is seeking an increase of $54 billion to $603 billion overall for defense programs. To maintain the overall topline budget number, the Administration is seeking offsets in non-defense related programs.
Federal Relations continues to monitor developments on this front.
Administration Budget Proposal to Call for Increase in Defense, Cuts to Domestic Programs
The Trump White House will send today to the federal agencies its draft FY2018 budget proposal that will seek increases for defense and veterans’ programs while looking to cut domestic programs. The proposal being shared with the agencies today will only address the discretionary programs — those that must be funded through the annual appropriations process—and will not touch the mandatory programs, like Social Security and Medicare. Those issues will be handled in the larger budget request that will be released later in March.
The call for increases in defense and veterans’ programs, as well as funding for a new border wall, without raising the overall level of discretionary spending would force sizable cuts to non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs. Under the current law, the overall FY2018 discretionary spending level is set at $1.064 trillion, with $549 billion for defense and $515.4 billion for NDD programs. Democrats have insisted on “parity” with respect to budget increases, arguing that increases to defense must be tied to increases in NDD programs, and are likely to raise serious objections to this budget outline. As noted above, a budget framework containing proposals on mandatory programs will be released in March.
Federal Relations will provide further details as they become available.
Trump Aims to Release FY18 Budget Outline in Mid-March
The Trump Administration is aiming to release its FY 2018 budget outline on March 14, an unnamed White House official told CQ over the weekend. The budget outline is not expected to be a comprehensive budget, but instead a “skinny” skeleton of what the Administration intends the full budget to look like. Some are expressing doubt that the Administration could make this soft deadline, given the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, was confirmed and sworn in just last week.