How Far Can They Get?

Posted on September 23, 2019

Even with significant disagreements between the two parties on a host of issues still on the table, the Senate appropriators are scheduled to try to move this week four of the spending bills for FY2020, which starts next Tuesday, October 1.

On Tuesday, three subcommittees are expected to take up their respective bills: Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Homeland Security. All three measures are expected to be controversial. The markup of the Interior legislation is likely to spark debate on the Administration’s recent attempts to change environmental regulations while the CJS bill markup will likely touch on, among other others, adequate funding for the 2020 census as well as jostling on gun measures and immigration. The FY2020 Homeland Security appropriations measure scheduled to be taken up tomorrow may prove to the most contentious, as Republicans will seek to include additional funding for a border wall, as requested by the President.

At this point in time, the full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up these three bills along with the Legislative Branch legislation during its markup on Thursday. Even if the appropriations process gets that far, it remains to be seen what happens after that, as Congress is slated to take a two-week recess starting next Monday. Deep divisions still remain, especially with respect to how much money is available to each of the 12 spending bills as well as the Administration’s push to transfer funds primarily from the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures for the border wall.

With the assumption that none of the 12 spending bills will be signed into law by the end of next Monday, the Senate is expected to act this week on a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through November 21. The House approved it last week by a vote of 301 – 123. Assuming it is adopted by the Senate, the President must still sign it into law.

With 11 Days To Go…

Posted on September 20, 2019

Remember the two-year spending agreement that was reached earlier this summer that increased the budget caps for both FY2020 and FY2021? Well, that seems like a distant memory at this point. When the agreement was reached, there were hopes that the FY2020 appropriations process would turn into a relatively smooth one. Fast forward to today and we are now 11 days away from the start of FY2020 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law.

To try to prevent another shutdown like the one that marked the beginning of FY2019, the House took up and passed yesterday a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through November 21. The Senate is expected to take it up next week. There was even uncertainty about the fate of the CR, with the biggest holdup being House Democratic appropriations leadership’s misgivings about adding funds for subsidies to farmers impacted by the tariff fight with China. Ultimately, enough of the concerns were addressed for floor action and passage.

In the Senate, with the hopes of a quick appropriations process dashed, appropriators are making progress where they can. The full Appropriations Committee cleared three bills yesterday in a bipartisan manner: Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services- General Government. However, significant hurdles remain. There still are differences between the two sides about the Administration’s attempts to move funds from other bills to build a wall on the Southern border. Related to the wall push is the Democrats’ unhappiness about the “302(b)” allocations to the subcommittees, especially to the Labor-HHS subcommittee for its bill. While the Labor-HHS-Education bill and the accompanying report have finally been released, the legislation has not yet moved due to Democratic objections on funding and Republican protests related to abortion policy.

The current version of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill would increase funding for NIH by $3 billion. In addition, while the legislation would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $6,330, it would level fund the majority of the other student financial aid and higher education programs of most interest, including:

SEOG: $840 million
Federal Work Study: $1.1 billion
TRIO: $1.06 billion
GEAR-UP: $360 million
GAANN: $23 million
Institute for Education Sciences (IES): $615 million
Title VI International Education programs: $72 million

The bill would also provide $100 million to federal student loan borrowers who would otherwise be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program except for the fact that they unknowingly made payments to ineligible repayment plans. This amount would be combined with unobligated balances for similar efforts from prior years.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Two More Spending Bills Clear House Committee

Posted on May 23, 2019

After a full day of markups, the House Appropriations Committee reported out yesterday afternoon two more FY2020 spending bills .

The Commerce-Justice-Science bill (see relevant documents here), which funds, among other agencies, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and NOAA, was approved 30 to 22.

The Interior and Environment bill (see relevant documents here), which funds a host of disparate agencies, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the USGS, was approved 30 to 21.

Two More Approps Bills Clear Committee

Posted on May 22, 2019

As scheduled, the House Appropriations Committee approved yesterday two more bills for FY2020.

The $690-billion Defense measure was approved by a vote of 30 – 22.

The committee adopted by a vote of 31 to 21 the $46-billion Energy and Water bill.

Two more measures– Transportation- Housing and Agriculture– are slated for subcommittee action tomorrow.

House Bills Reject Proposed Cuts to Science and Research

Posted on May 22, 2019May 22, 2019

This morning, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the FY2020 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) and Interior bills, measures that largely reject the cuts to science and research proposed by the Administration in its budget request.

CJS

NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) would be funded at $8.64 billion under this bill, an increase of $561.1 million above the current level and $1.57 billion more than what the Administration proposed.

Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities account would be funded at $7.11 billion, $586.3 million more than the FY2019 level and an increase of $1.44 billion above the request.

The Major Research Equipment, Facilities, and Construction (MREFC) account would see a total of $223.2 million, which was what was requested by the Administration. Within that amount, $46.3 million would be dedicated to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The Education and Human Resources account would see an increase of $40.0 million to $950 million, $126.5 million above what the White House requested.

NASA

The bill would fund NASA at a total of $22.31 billion, an increase of $81 million above the current level and $1.30 billion more than what the Administration requested.

The Science Mission Directorate would see an increase of $255.6 million in this bill for a total of $7.16 billion. Of that amount, $2.02 billion would be for Earth Science and $2.71 billion would be for Planetary Science. Astrophysics would see a total of $1.37 billion while $352.6 million would be dedicated to the Webb Telescope.

The bill would allocate $510.7 million to the WFIRST project, which was zeroed out by the Administration.

Space Grant, a part of the STEM Engagement Office, would be funded at $48.0 million.

NOAA

Within NOAA, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the primary research arm of the agency, would receive $595.4 million, an increase of $70.3 million above the FY2019 level.

The Climate Research Program would see a total of $186.5 million, an increase of $27.5 million. The Cooperative Institutes and Labs funded through Climate Research is slated for $74.0 million, $13.0 million more the current allocation. Climate research competitive programs would see an $11-million increase to $71.0 million.

The bill proposes to fund Sea Grant at $73.0 million (a $5-million increase) while the Aquaculture line would be funded at $12.0 million.

The report is available here.

Interior

The Interior bill scheduled to be taken up also rejects many of the cuts to research programs proposed by the Administration.

USGS

The Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) would see an increase of $13.0 million to a total of $38.4 million. Of that increase, $4 million would be designated for the creation of a new CASC in the Midwest.

The bill also proposes to fund the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system at $19.0 million, with another $6.7 million for additional infrastructure build-out for the system.

The USGS cooperative research units program, slated for elimination by the Administration, would see a $5.6-million increase to a total of $24.0 million.

NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities, currently funded at $155 million, would see an increase to $167.5 million.

The Interior report is available here.

Next Steps

The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the bills later this morning. We’ll report on further developments of relevance.