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Category: Defense

Additional Details of Omnibus Package Available

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More details of the FY2018 Omnibus spending package unveiled last are now available.

Within the budget for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Nursing Workforce Development programs would be funded at $249.5 million, an increase of $20 million above the final FY2017 enacted levels.  The Public Health and Preventive Medicine program would be level funded at $17.0 million under this bill.

With respect to programs funded by the Department of Education, Title VI/ International Education programs would collectively be level funded at $72.2 million.  The Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program would see a cut of $5 million to $23.0 million.

The bill provides $350 million to allow borrowers not currently eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to join it.  It also would use a portion of the surplus from the Pell Grant program to over the increased mandatory expense associated with the increase in the maximum award.

The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account at the National Science Foundation would be funded at the Administration-requested level of $182.8 million, with $57.8 million dedicated to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, also as requested by the Administration.

Within the NASA budget, Earth Science programs would essentially be level funded at $1.9 billion.  The popular Space Grant program would be level funded at the FY2017 level of $40.0 million.

The Commerce-Justice-State portion of the package funds, among other agencies and programs, NOAA and its various programs.  Sea Grant, which was proposed for elimination by the Administration, would see a slight increase to $76.5 million while the Integrated Ocean Observing System program would be funded at $35.0 million, also a slight increase above the FY2017 level.  As part of the Climate Research account within the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) line, Climate Research Labs and Cooperative Institutes are slated for level funding of $60 million.

Of interest in the Interior portion of the massive legislative package, the bill would level fund the Cooperative Research Units at the U.S. Geological Survey at $17.4 million while mandating that the Survey maintain a total of eight Climate Science Centers around the country in FY2018 and keeping them level funded at $25.3 million.

Office of Federal Relations will provide further details.

More Information About FY2019 Budget Request

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Department of Defense

The Pentagon’s FY2019 budget request includes $445.9 million for the basic research (6.1) programs funded by the Army, a cut of about $41 million compared to the FY2017 level.  At the same time, the budget request asks for $919.6 million for Army applied research (6.2) programs, a decrease of about $300 million from FY2017.

Navy 6.1 programs would be cut by about $34 million and would receive approximately $597 million and Navy 6.2 programs would see a cut of roughly $89 million below the FY2017 level and would be funded at about $891 million under the FY2019 budget proposal.

At nearly $518 million, Air Force 6.1 would be cut by $27 million while Air Force 6.2 programs would see a total of roughly $1.31 billion, a $13-million cut.

Defense-wide basic research program would see a slight bump to $708 million while defense-wide 6.2 program would seen an increase of $207 million to $1.98 billion.

Additional details about the FY2019 Pentagon research budget request are available here.

House Passes “Minibus” Package

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While the Senate was busy with healthcare yesterday, on the other side of the Capitol, the House took up a “minibus” spending package for FY2018, consisting of four bills:  Defense, Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction.  The House Republicans combined these four bills as a defense-oriented package, after an initial conversation to pull together all 12 spending measures were unfruitful.

The bill passed by a vote of 235 to 192.

Even though the package has been adopted by the House, its biggest portion, the Defense bill, contains funding recommendations that cannot be implemented without change in law.  The allocation for defense programs in the bill exceed the current allowable limit by more than $70 billion, meaning that either the law will need to be changed or the funding levels in the bill will need to be altered.

House Begins to Move Four-Bill Spending Package

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On Wednesday, the House approved rules that will govern the floor debate for a four-bill spending package for FY2018.  The House leadership earlier this week decided to combine four of the appropriations bills for next year– the Legislative Branch, Military Construction, Energy and Water, and Defense– into a single legislative package and move them together through the House.  The House will act on the “minibus” package this week.

The House is expected to take up the Legislative Branch and Military Construction bills before moving on to the Energy and Water legislation later this evening.  The Defense bill is expected to be the last of the four measures that will be brought up.

 

House to Consider Multi-Bill Spending Package

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The House Rules Committee started meeting tonight to go over which of the more than 300 amendments would be made in order during the floor consideration of a multi-bill spending package when it hits the House floor later this week.

The “minibus” currently under consideration includes four of the 12 FY2018 spending bills:  Defense, Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction.  While the four-bill minibus package is the bill under consideration, depending on the level of support within the House Republican conference, the House leadership could decide to bring an omnibus spending package instead, one which would contain all 12 bills for FY2018.