Category: Appropriations

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.

Read more here.

Originally, House Republicans had planned this short work week as one to adopt the FY 2017 budget blueprint passed by the House Budget Committee last week. Passing a FY 2017 budget, despite the two year budget agreement reached last year, was to reinforce the Republican base and broadly that Republicans can rise above and lead in Washington. Instead, the House will adjourn Wednesday for a two-week-plus Easter recess with little to show for their efforts.

When the House returns to work April 12, they will have only four legislative days left to adopt a budget by the statutory deadline of April 15. While House leadership hopes to use the recess to get a deal, the signs have been far from promising. Last week, House Budget Committee approved the plan by a 20-16 vote, with two Republicans joining all 14 Democrats in opposition. 

The conservative House Freedom Caucus remains opposed to the Committee-passed FY 2017 Budget plan because it has a discretionary spending cap of $1.07 billion, which is $30 billion above what would be allowed under the deficit-cutting Budget Control Act, which was enacted in 2011.  Instead, the FY 2017 House Budget uses a higher limit was first negotiated under a two-year bipartisan budget deal enacted last year under former-Speaker John Boehner.

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) had tried to broker a compromise to the higher discretionary levels by coupling the additional $30 billion in discretionary funding with consideration of separate legislation that would cut entitlement programs by $30 billion over two years. However, House Conservatives refused the offer and expressed skepticism that any legislation containing entitlement cuts would ever pass, particularly in the filibuster-prone Senate. Additionally, House Democrats denounced the effort to cut entitlements such as Medicare as a betrayal of last year’s bipartisan deal.

Strong and public opposition by the Freedom Caucus has forced House Republican leadership to postpone a House floor vote, knowing they lack the 218 votes needed to ensure its success — nearly with all House Democrats and nearly forty Freedom Caucus members in opposition.

While the House Republican leadership remains hopeful at brokering a budget deal, a lesser version of an official budget, known as a deeming resolution, would set a simple topline discretionary spending limits could be used and would allow the Appropriations committees to ascertain their discretionary spending limits known as 302(b)s for the 12 respective, annual appropriations bills. However, a deeming resolution would likely need support from Democrats to pass.  

Meanwhile, given the budget agreement reached least year, an official FY 2017 budget is unnecessary for topline, overall spending levels, but the discretionary spending levels for the individual 12 respective appropriations bills remain in question, which is the reason for the FY 2017 budget. 

There has been discussion about proceeding to the annual appropriations bills without any enforceable spending limits, such as an official budget or a deeming resolution. However, doing so is unprecedented .

Meanwhile, House Appropriators are moving forward without an official FY 2017 Budget and  released the text of the FY 2017 Military Construction-VA bill today. The measure provides $81.6 billion in discretionary funding. The bill provides $7.9 billion for military construction projects and $176.1 billion in mandatory and discretionary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Markup of the bill is scheduled for Wednesday by the Military Construction-VA Subcommittee and will kick off legislative action on the 12 appropriations for FY 2017. 

The House is out this week, but the Senate is in, voting today on a procedural motion to close debate on a measure that would provide grants for opioid abuse prevention and treatment programs. The Senate will also be hearing about the President’s FY2017 budget plans for a variety of agencies. Most hearings will be broadcast live via the web. Here are the highlights:

Tuesday, March 8:

• Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Forest Service budget, 10:00am ET
• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Homeland Security Department budget, 10:00am ET
• Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement budgets, 2:30pm ET

Wednesday, March 9:

• Senate Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee hearing on Indian Health Service budget, 10:00am ET
• Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Defense Health Program, 10:30am ET
• Senate Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee hearing on Agriculture Department budget, 2:00pm ET
• Senate Appropriations Energy-Water Subcommittee hearing on Energy Department budget, 2:30pm ET

Thursday, March 10:

• Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee hearing on Education Department budget, 10:00am ET
• Senate Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee hearing on NASA budget, 10:30am ET
• Senate Appropriations Military Construction-VA Subcommittee hearing on Veterans Affairs Department budget, 11:00am ET
• Senate Appropriations Transportation-HUD Subcommittee hearing on Housing and Urban Development Department budget, 2:30pm ET