Senate Moves Forward on Budget

Posted on April 18, 2016May 16, 2016

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Michael Enzi (R-WY) filed a budget motion in the Senate today to establish discretionary spending topline numbers, known as 302(b)s for FY2017. The move allows appropriations work to begin in earnest as the Seante prepares to take up its Energy-Water measure (S 2804) this week.

Enzi set the budget limits at $551 billion for defense spending and $518.5 billion for nondefense spending, equal to the caps enacted under last year’s bipartisan budget deal. The agreement provided for Enzi to file the toplines between April 15 and May 15 in the absence of a budget resolution, though Enzi has not ruled out considering a complete budget measure later in the year.

Busy Week for Appropriators

Posted on April 18, 2016

House and Senate Appropriations committees show no signs of slowing down as both committees announced their intended schedules for the week. The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced subcommittee and full committee markup of FY 2017 Commerce, Science and Justice Appropriations bill, which funds federal research agencies including the National Science Foundation and NASA. Also hearings have been announced for the Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee will hold a hearing on EPA, and Defense Subcommittee hearing on innovation and research.

The House Appropriations Committee has announced full committee markups of the FY 2017 Agriculture and Energy & Water bills, which went through subcommittee markup last week, as well as discretionary allocations.

Meanwhile, there is no clarity in the House as to when a FY 2017 Budget maybe expected, despite the statutory deadline being last Friday.

Appropriators Move Forward

Posted on April 15, 2016

Appropriators from both chambers of Congress advanced several of the annual spending bills needed to finance government agencies for the fiscal year that begins the first of October, but plenty of roadblocks could derail the process at any time. That includes the fact that Republican House leaders say they’re not giving up on getting a budget resolution adopted, even with the statutory deadline fast approaching on Friday and their party’s conservative bloc showing no signs of yielding to the higher levels of the last budget agreement. The House is expected to give itself an extension on the budget deadline, since no agreement has been reached.

The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote their Military Construction-VA bill, while two of its subcommittees advanced the Agriculture and Energy & Water bills. Similarly, the Senate, which normally waits on House-passed bills, is acting quickly on its own versions of FY 2017 measures. Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its own versions of the Military Construction-VA and Energy & Water bills, which were approved by its subcommittees Wednesday. The Senate is expected to consider its FY 2017 Energy-Water bill on the floor next week.

Energy & Water Appropriations Measures Move Forward

Posted on April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

Today, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved their respective FY 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bills.

This morning, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee passed by voice vote the FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill will now be referred to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is an increase of $53 million, or 1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $5.347 billion. The bill funds ARPA-E at $305.8 million, which is an increase of $14.8 million, or 5.1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $291 million.

This afternoon, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote its FY 2017 spending bill providing $37.5 billion for the Department of Energy and water programs. The measure includes $6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, $12.9 billion for nuclear security programs and $1.14 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, according to a committee summary.

The Senate bill totals $37.5 billion, which is $355 million above FY2016 enacted funding levels and $261 million above the President’s FY 2017 request. During his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) stressed the importance of doubling funding for basic energy research. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is $53 million, or a 1 percent increase over FY2016 enacted funding levels ($5.347 billion). This is the same amount of funding the Office of Science received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was marked-up earlier today.

The Senate proposal eliminates funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Both Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were in agreement on the elimination of this program. Chairman Alexander remarked that the elimination of funding for ITER would save $125 million for investment in other areas. Ranking Member Feinstein said that continued funding of ITER would threaten domestic fusion programs and the Army Corp of Engineers.

The bill funds ARPA-E at $292 million, which is consistent with the amount of funding it received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill also funds exascale computing at $285 million.

The measure is scheduled for full committee consideration Thursday and is expected to reach the Senate floor next week.

FY2017 Budget and Appropriations Status

Posted on April 11, 2016April 11, 2016

Congressional leaders have not yet determined topline budget numbers for FY2017 even though Congress is supposed to pass a budget by April 15^th under the Congressional Budget Act in order to begin the annual spending process. And it does not appear that House leadership has any plan ahead for passing a budget by Friday’s deadline. The House and Senate could still pass a budget after April 15^th if they can reach an agreement but neither of the two sides — conservatives who want lower spending levels versus lawmakers who want to adhere to last year’s bipartisan deal — are budging.

Nonetheless, House appropriators are still moving forward with individual FY2017 spending bills this week despite the dim chances of them ever reaching the floor. The House Appropriations Committee is using the spending levels outlined in last year’s budget deal for now so that its bills can advance. The full House Appropriations Committee will take up the bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects. Also on Wednesday, the Energy-Water and Agriculture subcommittees are scheduled to mark up their spending measures.

On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Appropriations Committee plans to mark up its own versions of the Military Construction-VA and Energy-Water bills in subcommittees on Wednesday and full committee on Thursday, when it also will reveal how much discretionary money each of its subcommittees will be allocated to spend. Senate leaders already have said they will assume an overall discretionary limit of $1.07 trillion. Unlike in the House, there has been no opposition to that limit in the Senate.

All of this is leading up to one giant mess come the start of the new fiscal year on October 1^st. It is all but certain that Congress will need to pass at least one continuing resolution (CR) to keep government funded in absence of new spending authority for FY2017.