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Category: Defense

Meanwhile, the FY2021 Appropriations Bills Move Along

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While most of the public’s attention is focused on the difficult negotiations that may or may not be taking placing on the next COVID relief package, the clock continues to count down to the start of FY2021.

The House is working to adopt a second “minibus” of spending bills before this weekend.  Instead of taking up a seven-bill package as originally planned, the chamber is now considering one made up of six pieces, having removed the almost-always-controversial Homeland Security measure from the minibus.  More than 300 amendments are expected to be debated before a vote to adopt the legislation.

This week’s package is made up of:  Commerce-Justice-Science; Defense; Energy and Water; Labor-HHS-Education; Financial Services-General Government; and Transportation-HUD bills.  Last week, the House cleared the Agriculture, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and VA-Military Construction measures.  This leaves the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch bills for future consideration.

The Senate still has yet to produce any of the 12 bills.

Will We See More Appropriations and Senate “COVID 4.0” This Week?

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After adopting a four-bill spending package for FY2021 last week, the House is currently scheduled to take up an even larger seven-bill “minibus” later this week, H.R. 7617.The legislation combines the FY2021 Defense, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water Development, Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, and Transportation-HUD measures.  As we noted last week, the Senate has yet to move on even a single spending bill.

Meanwhile, over the on the Senate side of the Capitol, we may finally see this week a set of proposals that represents the Senate Republican wish list for a “COVID 4.0” relief package.  The Senate Republican leadership had hoped to unveil something last week but could not work out differences among themselves and with the White House.  The goal is to unveil a proposal this week so that they can start negotiating with the Democratic House, which passed the the HEROES Act in May as its marker for negotiations.  There is pressure to act as quickly as possible as a number of benefits from the CARES Act are scheduled to expire very soon, including expanded unemployment benefits.

Spending Bills Move to the House Floor

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After a flurry of activities in subcommittee and full committee the last two weeks, the vast majority of FY2021 spending bills is scheduled to move to the House floor this week and next for consideration by the full chamber.  Rather than considering them individually, the bills will be grouped into two different “minibus” legislative packages.

The first grouping of bills, H.R 7608, is made up of four pieces of legislation and it is slated for consideration later this week:  State-Foreign Operations; Agriculture; Interior; and, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.  A summary of the package, prepared by the House Democratic staff, is available here.

The second batch, H.R. 7617, is currently scheduled for floor action next week.  This second minibus pulls together seven of the eight remaining spending measures:  Defense; Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy and Water; Financial Services; Homeland Security; Labor-HHS-Education; and, Transportation-Housing.  A summary of the different parts of the large bill is available here.

Should these packages pass, only the Legislative Branch would remain unapproved in the House by the end of next week.

Defense, CJS Bills Approved; Last Two Bills Slated for Today

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The House Appropriations Committee cleared three more FY2021 spending bills yesterday, all by votes of 30 – 22:  Defense, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Transportation-Housing Urban Development.  Yesterday’s action leaves the last two bills for FY2021 for committee action today, the Homeland Security and Financial Services-General Government measures.

The Senate has yet to take up any of its bills.

Michael Kratsios Appointed to Key Defense Research Position

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US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has named Michael Kratsios to be Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Until now, Kratsios has been serving as the White House Chief Technology Officer, and will replace former-NASA Administrator Michael Griffin in his new role.

Prior to starting at the White House, Kratsios held several positions in the financial sector of increasing scope and responsibility. He has a BA from Princeton and was a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing.