Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time… For Now

Posted on September 26, 2019

While the Director of National Intelligence was testifying on the other side of the Capitol, the Senate Appropriations Committee took up five FY2020 appropriations bills today: Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS); Interior; Homeland Security; Legislative Branch; and State-Foreign Operations. We will provide details about the bills of greatest interest to UW as soon as they become available.

While the committee process moved forward, none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law. The Senate passed the House-adopted CR earlier this afternoon 82-15, sending it to the President’s desk. While the White House has signaled that the President will sign it into law, thus keeping the government open through mid-November. However, with the recent political developments, what happens after this CR expires is anyone’s guess.

Adding More Fuel to the Fire

Posted on September 25, 2019September 25, 2019

As expected, three more Senate Appropriations subcommittees cleared their respective spending bills yesterday: Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), Interior, and Homeland Security. As predicted, the markup of the Homeland Security bill proved to be the most controversial, as that bill contains $5 billion for the border wall sought by the President. Amendments to all three bills will be considered at the full committee markup, scheduled for tomorrow

While details about the measures will not be available until after the committee’s activities tomorrow, some initial information about the funding levels for a number of research agencies of interest to UW is available. For example, the Republican press release on the bill provides for the following:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – $22.75 billion for NASA, $1.25 billion above the FY2019 enacted level, reflecting the need to fund infrastructure for human spaceflight to support for the accelerated plan to return to the moon by 2024 while supporting NASA’s science, technology development, aeronautics, and education activities. Using the same account funding structure as in previous years, this includes:

$6.2 billion for Exploration, $1.2 billion above the FY2019 enacted level, to advance NASA’s human exploration program by providing $2.586 billion for the Space Launch System (SLS), $1.4 billion for the Orion crewed spacecraft to continue development of NASA’s next deep-space crewed capsule, $500 million for the proposed Lunar “Gateway,” and $744 million in funding for crewed lunar landers.
$6.9 billion for Science, equal to the FY2019 enacted amount, including $1.9 billion for Earth science, $2.6 billion for Planetary science, $1.2 billion for astrophysics, $423 million for the Webb telescope, and $735 million for Heliophysics.
$784 million for Aeronautics, which is $59 million above the FY2019 enacted level. The funding will allow for ongoing low sonic boom experimental plane development, as well as supporting research in unmanned aircraft safety and airspace integration, and advanced aircraft composite and materials research.
$112 million is provided for the NASA’s STEM Engagement education programs, which were proposed to be eliminated in the budget request. Within STEM Engagement, Space Grant is funded at $47 million, NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is funded at $22 million, the Minority University Research and Education Project is funded at $33 million, and STEM Education and Accountability projects is funded at $10 million.
$1.076 billion is provided for Space Technology, $149 million above the FY2019 enacted level. Funding is included to advance projects in early stages of development that are expected to eventually demonstrate capabilities needed for future space exploration.

National Science Foundation (NSF) – $8.317 billion for NSF, $242 million above the FY2019 enacted level. Funding is provided for basic research across scientific disciplines to support the development of effective STEM programs.

The bill provides $249 million above the FY2019 level for research and $27 million above FY2019 level for education activities. These funds will allow NSF to provide more grants to highly competitive research projects and help provide opportunities to prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.
$190 million is provided for EPSCoR, an increase of $14 million above the FY2019 enacted level.

Meanwhile, the following information about NOAA comes from the Democratic side of the committee:

NOAA Research and Grants. The bill rejects the administration’s request to cut funding for climate, weather, and oceans research by 41 percent, and instead funds the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) research at $572 million. Additionally, the bill again rejects the proposal to eliminate successful NOAA programs like Sea Grant, Coastal Zone Management (CZM) grants, the National Ocean and Coastal Security Fund, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). The Sea Grant program is funded at $75 million, $7 million above the fiscal year 2019 level, which yields $575 million in economic activity and supports 12,500 jobs and 1,300 American businesses. CZM grants are funded at $76.5 million, $1 million above the fiscal year 2019 level, and the National Ocean and Coastal Security Fund is funded at the fiscal year 2019 level of $30 million. Our coasts and Great Lakes contribute about $350 billion to the economy annually and these State-Federal partnerships support sustainable economic development and environmental restoration. The bill also provides a $19 million increase above the fiscal year 2019 level to implement the new Pacific Salmon Treaty.

Weather Satellites. This bill provides $755 million to continue construction of NOAA’s three new Polar Weather Satellites, equal to the fiscal year 2020 request. Polar satellites provide 85 percent of the data used to forecast the weather, and are a vital component of Americans’ personal, property, and economic security. One-third of U.S. GDP is affected by climate and weather, including farmers trying to protect livestock and crops, cities relying on energy from wind turbines and solar panels, and air travelers trying to get home safely and on time. Last year, the United States experienced 14 separate weather and climate disasters that cost more than $1 billion dollars each. These storms would have cost far more and posed even greater threats to human safety without sufficient warning. The bill also provides $304 million for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) weather satellites, equal to the fiscal year 2020 request

NOAA Ships. The bill provides $75 million for a portion of a third NOAA ocean survey vessel. NOAA currently has 15 ships in its aging fleet, with one vessel coming offline unexpectedly earlier this year. Further, that number will dwindle to 8 vessels by 2028. The Committee has recently funded two additional vessels, but to maintain its current oceanographic capacity, NOAA needs to build not two but eight additional vessels in the next several years, as construction takes eight to ten years per ship. These vessels enable NOAA to map the ocean floor, support weather forecasts, conduct oceanographic and climate research, and improve ecosystem and fisheries management. The bill also provides $60 million to improve NOAA’s existing vessels’ state of good repair.

With respect to the Interior bill, the Democratic press release includes the following bit of information:

Cultural Programs.—The bill provides $157 million each to the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, an increase of $2 million more for each endowment than the fiscal year 2019 enacted level, rejecting the Administration’s proposal to terminate these programs. The bill provides $1.047 billion for the Smithsonian Institution, $4.1 million above fiscal year 2019 and $69.3 million above the President’s budget request. Funding for the National Gallery of Art is increased to $172.2 million, and funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts increases to $43.29 million.

At the same time, the Republican press release includes the following information about the U.S. Geological Survey:

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – $1.2 billion for the USGS, an increase of $49 million above the FY2019 enacted level. Within this amount, there are important program increases for energy and mineral resources, natural hazards, water resources, and deferred maintenance and capital improvement projects.

As noted before, there already was a significant amount of disagreement before yesterday afternoon between the two sides on how to move forward with respect to appropriations because of differences on a host of issues, not the least of which was the border wall. The House Democrats’ inquiry into possibly impeaching the President could add another wrinkle to not only the appropriations process but to governing as a whole.

After the announcement by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday afternoon about the inquiry, the White House agreed to release the transcript of the call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president. It was released earlier today.

How much more fuel will be added to the political fire? Can the various actors walk and chew gum at the same time? Stay tuned.

Spending Bill Clears House, Ready To Be Signed

Posted on February 15, 2019

Following the Senate’s lead, the House cleared last night H.J. Res. 31, the measure that would keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year (read the explanatory statement for the legislation here). The House vote was 300 – 128.

As noted yesterday, after President Trump signs the measure later this morning, he is expected to declare a national emergency in an attempt to find additional sources of funding for a wall along the Southern border. Multiple court challenges are expected to such a move.

Trump to Sign Spending Bill, Then Declare National Emergency

Posted on February 14, 2019

Late this afternoon, the Senate cleared by a vote of 83 to 16 the spending package that would fund the entire government for the rest of the fiscal year (the text of the conference report is available here). The Senate moved to vote on the bill even as the Members were unclear as to whether the President would actually sign it.

To end the drama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared on the Senate floor to announce that President Trump would sign the bill, which does not contain the $5.7 billion requested by the President for a concrete wall. While declaring that the bill would be signed by the President, McConnell also added that President Trump also plans to declare a national emergency, in an attempt to find additional ways to construct the wall. A number of Republicans in both chambers of Congress have expressed reservations about such a move, as they are concerned that a future Democratic president might declare a national emergency for other issues, such as gun violence or climate change. If and when a national emergency is declared, various lawsuits are expected to be filed, challenging that declaration.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later this evening.

Read more about the developments here, here, and here.

We will provide details from the conference report shortly.

Three Week Deal…Some Ancillary Fixes

Posted on January 28, 2019January 28, 2019

As part of the three week deal signed into law on Saturday, the measure (H.J.Res. 28) would reopen the nine Cabinet departments and several independent agencies closed during the shutdown through February 15. Beyond funding these agencies, there were other significant items included in this agreement.

Back Pay

Federal employees will receive back pay as part of the agreement. Most employees should be expect to receive their two missed paychecks by the end of the week. Government contractors may or may not receive missed pay depending on the nature of their contract. States or grantees that helped fill the gap during the shutdown can expect to be reimbursed.

Conference Committee

As part of the agreement, the House and Senate will convene a conference committee to work out a deal on FY 2019 Homeland Security spending, including the fate of the Administration’s demand for $5.7 billion for border wall construction, which is spending Congressional Democrats have long opposed.

Pay-Go

Under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (PL 111-139), the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is supposed to issue a report within 14 days after the end of a Congressional session outlining whether enacted laws added to the deficit over five or 10 years. If so, then the OMB has to implement across-the-board cuts to any programs not exempt from the statute, to eliminate the excess.

Routinely, since the 2010 law was enacted, Congress has simply decreed that certain pricey provisions will not be added. For example, Congress removed the impact of the $1.5 trillion, 10-year tax cuts from the OMB’s calculations as part the 2017 stopgap appropriations bill both were signed into law the same day.

The stopgap spending bill includes provisions delaying roughly $800 million in spending cuts, mainly (about 90 percent) impacting Medicare. Because Congress did not act in time, the OMB should have had to implement the cuts, but the shutdown delayed implementation.

That Pay-Go “debit” will pop up again next year unless Congress eliminates it once again on any FY 2019 final package. A House-passed, $271.8 billion package (HR 648) of six appropriations measures would have wipe out the scorecard’s existing debit, so only future legislation increasing deficits would count for the OMB’s calculations.