This week the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) released a report regarding enforcement of the discretionary spending caps for both 2016 and 2017 as contained in the Sequester. The OMB must issue a final sequestration report after the Congress adjourns and to date, no 2017 appropriations bills have been enacted into law and, therefore, no changes are reflected to the current 2017 caps. However, if the 2017 discretionary caps remain unchanged, the report estimates that, if enacted, the actions by the House of Representatives would result in a sequestration of $17 million in the defense category and a sequestration of $775 million in the non-defense category. Additionally, the report finds that the Senate is in compliance with both of the current 2017 spending limits. Finally, OMB estimates that present conference action on pending 2016
supplemental appropriations, if enacted, would not breach the current 2016 limits.
Category: Budget
House Starts Moving Appropriations Bills
House Leadership is bringing its first FY2017 appropriations bill to the Floor this week with the FY2017 Military Construction (Mil-Con) appropriations bill. Since the House failed to pass a FY2017 Budget resolution before the April 15th statutory deadline, House Appropriators have been required to wait until May 15th to begin to bring funding measures forward. The House is expected to consider the FY2017 Mil-Con bill, which is considered the least controversial measure, as well as a supplemental appropriations bill providing Zika funding.
The Senate, meanwhile, is also considering supplemental funding for Zika, but has been well in advance of the House in considering the 12 annual appropriations bills.
Senate Moves Forward on Budget
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
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.
FY2017 Budget and Appropriations Status
Congressional leaders have not yet determined topline budget numbers for FY2017 even though Congress is supposed to pass a budget by April 15th 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 15th 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 1st. 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.