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Category: Appropriations

House Releases NASA Authorization

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The House Science Committee released another two year reauthorization, this time it was for NASA. Chairman Lamar Smith released the NASA Authorization Act for 2016 and 2017 today while also announcing the legislation’s markup for Thursday at 11 am.   The FY2016 and 2017 authorization would make deep cuts to NASA’s earth science program under either of the two funding scenarios laid out in the bill – “aspirational” or “constrained.” Top-line funding for NASA would be the same as the President’s FY2016 budget request ($18.5 billion) under the aspirational level or the same as its current funding ($18.0 billion) under the constrained scenario.  Overall, the bill favors human space exploration, planetary science, and astrophysics.

The funding section is complicated because two budget levels are recommended depending on whether Congress removes the caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA).

The bulk of the 129-page bill is policy provisions that appear to be virtually identical to those passed by the House in February in the 2015 NASA Authorization Act. That bill’s funding recommendations were only for FY2015, which is in progress and reflected what had already been appropriated. This Republican-sponsored bill substitutes funding recommendations for the next two years, FY2016 and FY2017.

In February of this year, the House Science Committee introduced and passed the following day HR 810- the 2015 NASA Authorization Act. It also passed the full House by voice vote. The bill was virtually identical to the FY2014 NASA Authorization Act passed by the House last year by a vote of 401-2.

Click here to read the text of the NASA Authorization Act for 2016 and 2017.

 

House Budget Bill — Update

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After a marathon markup that ran late into the evening, the House Republicans passed the bill out of the Budget Committee along a party line vote this morning. Late last night, the House Republican caucus seemed sharply divided between defense hawks and those committed to cutting spending.

According to an analysis from the Committee for Education Funding, the House Republicans’ proposed 2016 budget would make cuts to student aid that are deeper than meets the eye and would hurt funding for major education programs. The budget would eliminate expansions to the income-based repayment program, public sector loan forgiveness and in-school interest subsidies for undergraduate Stafford loans. The three changes, in addition to cuts to the Pell Grant program, would add up to tens of billions of dollars in federal savings.

The House budget also plans changes to non-defense discretionary spending in future years that will squeeze other education programs, which will more than likley lead to cuts to Head Start, Title I, IDEA and other programs.

Senate Introduces Budget Resolution

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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced the Senate Budget today, whihc differs in big ways from a House GOP blueprint introduced yesterday. Both aim to balance the budget (the Senate in 10 years, the House in nine) and both cut over $5 billion in spending (the Senate cuts $5.1 trillion and the House would cut $5.5 trillion).  It proposes an additional $236 billion in cuts to non defense discretionary spending from FY2017-FY2025 and it would leave the defense discretionary caps at the sequester levels.

Most importantly, and a point that goes directly to the contention in the House Republicans, the Senate GOP budget only provides $58 billion for a war funding account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund — much less than the $90 billion included in the House GOP budget. In a move to appease House defense hawks, the House Budget had a huge increase in the OCO, which is not subject to the Sequester caps. The budget resolution effectively draws a line in the sand over war funding by creating a point of order against raising Overseas Contingency Operations account funding above $58 billion next year. Points of order require 60 votes to pass. That means any move to boost the OCO funding would need the support of Senate Democrats. Obama has proposed $51 billion in war funds for the military.
As for policy directives, the Senate proposal includes reconciliation instructions for the Senate Finance and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees to each find no less than $1 billion of savings over 10 years to put toward deficit reduction by no later than July 31, 2015. It also creates a Deficit-Neutral Reserve Fund (DNRF), a budget gimmick that allows Committee chairs to break budget constraints and will not result in a budget point of order, for the HELP Committee to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).  The budget proposal also creates a DNRF for improvements in medical research, innovation and safety, among other health reforms.  The budget also calls for a DNRF for energy legislation, which could include reforms to research programs at the Department of Energy.
Similar to the House Republican Budget, the Senate budget would cut Pell — and cut $90 billion from the Pell grant program over 10 years. Additionally, the  proposal would set non-defense discretionary spending at $493 billion for 2016.
To read about the Senate Budget, click here. 
The Senate is marking up the budget Wednesday and Thursday, and it is expected that the full Senate will consider the proposal next week.

The Office of Federal Relations is currently monitoring the legislation and will make more information known as it becomes available.

House Budget Released

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US Capitol (AOC)

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) released the House Republican budget draft today, which in recent years has been largely a political document. The House Democrats are expected to release a competing draft soon. The federal budget, while it does not become law, does have to pass both chambers of Congress and will guide the House and Senate on federal spending. In addition, the budget typically charges the respective legislative bodies on sweeping policy initiatives, such as tax reform, which is what then-Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) suggested last year. This year, Chairman Price includes the repeal of Dodd-Frank and Obamacare, proposes a premium support system for Medicare, asks for a bipartisan study and report to Congress on the problems facing the Social Security program, and would eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Additionally, the final budget will guide the respective House and Senate Appropriations Committees on how much funding is available to begin work on the 12 annual appropriations bills.

The details are not yet clear, but at first blush, the bill would aim to balance the budget in nine years and create a surplus by 2025.  The measure would also cut $5.5 trillion over the next decade.  This would be achieved by eliminating duplicative programs and eliminating programs within agencies that are not “core functions” of the federal government. Examples of these duplicative, beyond the scope or “corporate welfare” programs cited include, job training programs, and eliminating the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Program  and Trade Promotion Activities at the International Trade Administration.

Redundancies and misuse of tax dollars called out include:

  • There are 92 different anti-poverty programs.
  •  There are 17 food aid programs.
  •  There are 22 housing assistance programs
  • An Inspector General report revealed that employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are taking paid leave after work-related violations.
  • The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, two of the most important agencies in our national security apparatus, currently spend part of their budget studying climate change.

For higher education, the legislation proposes a new framework to use “federal dollars more efficiently” in higher education — but details on what that framework would be are thin. Pell grant awards would both be capped for next decade and limited to the neediest borrowers.

The bill would also replace or prevent Sequester cuts — although how is unclear. The measure would keeping the 2011 budget ceilings, and would impose a $1.017 trillion ceiling on spending in the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1. Domestic discretionary programs would get $493 billion, with $523 billion allotted for the Pentagon’s base budget. The GOP budget ignores Obama’s request for $74 billion in additional spending.

Already, the GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee has been less than committal to the measure. It remains to be seen if the measure will enjoy unified Republican support.

An overview of the House Budget Committee draft can be found here.

The Office of Federal Relations will continue to update on this issue as more information becomes available.

DHS Funding Passes House

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Today, the House passed the FY2015 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In what has been a protracted standoff between the House, the Senate and the Administration, the House passed a clean bill, meaning it was free of any policy riders on immigration that the House GOP had previously attached to similar measures.

This ends a three month standoff between Congress and the Administration on the President’s recent executive order to shield approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. In December, Congressional Republicans decided to pass all the FY15 appropriations bills, but for the DHS bill, in an effort to curb the President’s administrative actions, which the House GOP considers unconstitutional. The Department has been funded under a continuing resolution that expired at the end of February.

In January, the House had passed the DHS bill with restrictive funding language essentially curtailing what the Republican’s considered the Administration’s ability to follow through on the executive order. The DHS bill with the policy riders became impossible to pass through the Senate, as Senate Democrats remained unified against the riders and refused to pass anything but a stand alone bill.

Late last week, the House and Senate had to scramble to pass a short-term, one-week extension on DHS funding. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed a clean bill, which was sent to the House for consideration today.

The measure passed 257-167, with 182 Democrats and 75 Republicans voting to beat a Friday midnight deadline for DHS funding to expire. Voting against the measure were 167 Republicans, many in protest to the lack of language to block Obama’s immigration policies.

The bill now heads to the President for his signature.