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Category: Appropriations

FY16 House DOD and Senate E&W Appropriations Bills Released

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House and Senate appropriators are in full swing working on the FY16 appropriations measures.

House Appropriators released of a FY16 Defense appropriations measure that totals $578.6 billion. The bill, which the Subcommittee on Defense will mark up Wednesday, includes $88.4 billion for so-called Overseas Contingency Operations account.

In total, the bill provides $578.6 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $24.4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level and $800 million above the President’s request. This includes $88.4 billion in Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) funding for war efforts and related costs, which is within the level assumed in the House and Senate budget conference agreement.

The bill contains $67.9 billion – $66.2 billion in base funding and $1.7 billion in GWOT funding – for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies. This is $4 billion above the fiscal year 2015 level, and will help to advance the safety and success of current and future military operations and prepare our nation to meet a broad range of future security threats.

Specifically, this funding will support research and development of: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; the GPS III operational control and space segments; the new Air Force bomber program; a next-generation JSTARS aircraft; the RQ-4 Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; the Navy’s Future Unmanned Carrier-based Strike System, the Ohio-class submarine replacement; Stryker lethality; the Israeli Cooperative Programs; and other important research and development activities.

A total of $88.4 billion in war-related OCO funds is $37.4 billion more than Obama requested for this same bill and represents an admitted ploy to appease Republican hawks while keeping within the BCA caps. This distribution seems in line with an effort to try to target the surplus OCO funds toward training and equipment costs that can at least be linked to the actual war operations overseas. Such maneuvers were a strong point of contention during the NDAA consideration and warranted a veto threat.

 

Senate Appropriators in the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $35.4 billion FY 2016 spending bill that sets annual funding levels for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies.

The bill would raise funding some $1.2 billion over current levels, effectively matching the increase approved in the version approved by the House Appropriations Committee on April 22. Unlike the House appropriations bill, however, the Senate subcommittee draft puts off debate on the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada that has been blocked for years by Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

 

House CJS Report Filed

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The House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider and mark up the FY16 Commerce, Justice, State bill on Wednesday morning. The Committee made the committee report public today for a more detailed look inside the thought process of the House Appropriations Committee.

House Appropriations Posts FY16 CJS

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The House Appropriations Committee released the text of the FY16 Commerce Justice State legislation this morning in immediate advance of their mark up. The Appropriations Committee released both the text of the legislation and a press release of highlights on the measure.

At first glance, there do seem to be clear winners and losers in the bill.

WINNER: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $18.5 billion in the bill, $519 million above the 2015 enacted level. This funding includes:

  • $4.8 billion for Exploration – $403 million above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. This includes funding to continue the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System flight program, and to continue progress in the commercial crew program.
  • $5.2 billion for NASA Science programs – $7 million below the 2015 enacted level. This includes funding above the President’s request for planetary science to ensure the continuation of critical research and development programs.

LOSER: Department of Commerce – The bill includes $8.2 billion for Commerce , which is $251 million below the FY15 enacted level and $1.6 billion below the President’s request. Within Commerce, there was funding levels of the following :

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – The legislation contains $5.2 billion for NOAA, which is $274 million below the enacted level. Within this total, the National Weather Service is funded at $968 million – $4 million above the President’s request. The bill also includes full funding for the continuation of the current Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite program and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program to help maintain and improve weather forecasting to warn communities about potentially devastating natural disasters.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – NIST is funded at $855 million in the bill, which is $9 million below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Within this total, important core research activities are funded at $675 million to help advance U.S. competitiveness, innovation, and economic growth, and to improve cyber security.

National Science Foundation (NSF) – The legislation funds NSF at $7.4 billion, an increase of $50 million above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. This funding is targeted to programs that foster innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness, including funding for research on advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, neuroscience and STEM education.

The House CJS Subcommittee is expected to mark up the legislation this morning.

While specific details within the agencies are still unclear, the Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor the measure and provide a more complete analysis when information is available.

Two Down…10 To Go

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Yesterday the House passed the first appropriations vote of the season. The FY16 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (HR 2029) passed with a vote of 255 – 163, largely along party lines. Known colloquially as MilCon-VA, the measure is historically the least controversial of all the 12 annual appropriations bills. It passed last year with the support of every House Democrat and Republican with the exception of Rep. Raúl M. Labrador  (R-ID), a conservative with an idiosyncratic voting record.

On Wednesday morning, threats to withhold votes on the bill took on new significance as Democrats were emboldened by President Barack Obama’s veto threat, disapproval from the VA secretary and grumbles from influential veterans services organization. All the stakeholders said the funding levels were too low.

And by Wednesday evening, Republicans saw a second red flag, prompting them to suddenly cancel scheduled votes that night on remaining MilCon-VA amendments and final passage.

House Democratic leaders succeeded in holding all but 19 of their Members in voting against the measure without even formally whipping against the Republican bill.

This morning, the House approved its FY16 Energy & Water spending bill (H.R. 2028) on a largely party-line vote of 240-177. The bill includes $5.1 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, which is a small increase of $29 million, or 0.6 percent, above the FY15 enacted level.

Within of the Office of Science are the following funding amounts:

  • Advanced Scientific Computing Research: $537.5 million, an increase of $3.4 million, or 0.6 percent, above FY15;
  • Basic Energy Sciences: $1.7 billion, an increase of $37 million, or 2.1 percent, above FY15;
  • Biological and Environmental Research: $538 million, a significant cut of $54 million, or 9.1 percent, below FY15;
  • Fusion Energy Sciences: $467 million, a slight increase of $100,000 over FY15. The measure would freeze funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at the FY15 level of $150 million, and raise funding for the domestic fusion science program by $100,000 to $317 million.
  • High Energy Physics: $776 million, an increase of $10 million, or 1.3 percent, above FY15;
  • Nuclear Physics: $616 million, which is $20.6 million, or 3.5 percent, above FY15; and
  • ARPA-E: funding is frozen at the FY15 level of $280 million.

 

 

 

FY16 Budget Conference Committee Resolution

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Late yesterday, House and Senate conferees released SConRes 21 – the Budget Resolution for FY 2016, which is the conference agreement for the FY16 Budget. As a reminder, the Conferenced budget is not law. While it is not signed by the President, the measure does bind the House and Senate on policy and spending directives for the current fiscal year and into the future effectually carrying the force of law.

As a note, the work of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-MN) lead to the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act in December 2013. That law rolled back and replaced a portion of the sequester of discretionary spending required by the 2011 Budget Control Act for FY 2014 and FY 2015 and thereby enabled Congress to later enact omnibus appropriations packages for those two years.

The House is expected to consider the measure today, and it is expected to pass.

The measure’s FY 2016 discretionary spending adheres to the sequester-reduced defense and non-defense caps set by the Budget Control Act but also includes more funds for defense for FY 2016 through the uncapped OCO account and proposes to add extra funds to that account through FY 2021. It assumes an extra $245 billion for defense over 10 years while cutting non-defense spending below sequester-reduced levels by $496 billion.

It proposes $4.2 trillion in reductions to mandatory programs over 10 years, calls for a deficit-neutral overhaul of the tax code that lowers rates and assumes $124 billion in additional savings through “dynamic scoring” through Fair Value Accounting. This accounting measure is concerning because it changes fundamental assumptions of the costs of major programs like Pell and student loans. The measure’s FY 2016 discretionary spending adheres to the sequester-reduced defense and non-defense caps set by the Budget Control Act, but also includes more funds for defense for FY 2016 through the uncapped OCO account and proposes to add extra funds to that account through FY 2021. It assumes an extra $245 billion for defense over 10 years while cutting non-defense spending below sequester-reduced levels by $496 billion.

The agreement calls for a balanced budget by FY 2024, entirely by reducing spending $5.3 trillion over the next 10 years. Funding would be reduced though:

  •  instructions to House and Senate committees with oversight over the health care law to trigger the budget reconciliation process to try to repeal that law,
  • reducing spending on Medicare and Medicaid
  • changing programs such as food stamps.

For higher ed specifically:

  • The budget eliminates all mandatory Pell funding, assumes the maximum grant will be frozen at the current level and be fully funded on the discretionary side.  This purportedly would achieve a $84.6 billion in savings (Mandatory Pell funding is $73.9 billion over ten years, plus another $10.7 billion of mandatory spending already provided to support the discretionary grant.)
  • Eliminates in-school subsidies for undergraduate Stafford loans.  (Saving $34.8 billion.)
  • Eliminates public sector loan forgiveness. (Saving $10.5 billion.)
  • Eliminates expansion of Income Based Repayment programs. (Saving $16.3 billion.)

The Budget Committee’s switch to Fair Value accounting, would make student loans appear vastly more expensive to the federal government than they are – $223 billion more expensive from this year through 2024. Previously, student loans were seen as assets that made money for the federal government.