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News and updates

Bill Texts Released

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In preparation for the markups scheduled for tomorrow, the texts of the House Energy and Water Development, Interior, and Defense spending bills have been released by the Appropriations Committee.

While most details in the bills will not become public until the accompanying reports are released, some highlights are now available.

Energy and Water

  • Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – The bill provides $2.65 billion, an increase of $273 million above the fiscal year 2019 level and $2.3 billion above the request.
  • Science – The bill provides $6.87 billion, an increase of $285 million above the fiscal year 2019 level and $1.3 billion above the request.
  • Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy – The bill provides $425 million, an increase of $59 million above the fiscal year 2019 level and rejects the budget proposal to eliminate the program.

The full text of the bill is here.

Interior

The bill would provide $3.41 billion for EPA’s core science and environmental program work, an increase of $105 million above the 2019 enacted level and $1.03 billion above the President’s budget request. Within these amounts, the bill includes:

  • $476 million for Geographic Programs which represents an increase of $19 million above the 2019 enacted level and $438 million above the President’s budget request.

The bill would also provide $167.5 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is $12.5 million more than the 2019 enacted levels and rejects the President’s budget request proposal to eliminate both agencies.

The full text of the bill is here.

Defense

The bill would provide $100.7 billion for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation.  This represents an increase of $5.7 billion above the current level and $1.9 billion below the request.

The bill also includes $920 million for the Congressionally directed medical research program.

The full text of the defense bill is here.

All three of these bills are scheduled to be marked up tomorrow at the subcommittee level.  Detailed reports accompanying the bills will not be available until just before the full committee markup of the bills.

House Moves Ahead on More Spending Bills

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Three more FY2020 appropriations bills are scheduled to be taken up at the subcommittee level this week.  By the end of the week, seven of the 12 spending measures will have been acted on by their respective subcommittees.

On Wednesday, the Defense, Interior, and the Energy and Water Development bills are scheduled to be marked up in subcommittee.  Last Friday, the State-Foreign Operations bill was reported out.

The full Appropriations Committee so far has approved three FY2020 bills:  Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch.

On the other side of Capitol, the Senate has yet to move on any of its bills.  Appropriations Committee chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) had hoped for a deal on the budget caps before moving on bills.  However, with no deal currently in place, he may proceed later this summer under a “deeming” resolution, which would set informal spending limits.

 

Patrick Shanahan To Be Nominated as Defense Secretary

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The White House announced yesterday that the President intends to nominate Patrick Shanahan as the next Secretary of Defense.  Shanahan, the former Boeing executive and University of Washington regent, has been serving as the acting secretary since the beginning of the year after the resignation of Jim Mattis.  While he is expected to face a number of tough questions on several high-profile issues, he is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.

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

Appropriations Process Moves Forward

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Before officially taking up the FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education funding bill, the House Appropriations Committee approved a total of $1.295 trillion in new discretionary spending for the upcoming fiscal year.  The committee also adopted, along party lines, the allocation of funds to each of the 12 subcommittees, or “302(b)s.”

Of the total amount of $1.295 billion, the Labor-HHS-Education bill is slated to receive $189.9 billion under the House Democrats’ plan, an increase of 6.6 percent above the current year’s allocation.  All 12 bills would see increases, with the Military Construction-Veterans Administration bill receiving largest percentage increase and the Homeland Security measure seeing the smallest increase.

Although these allocations were approved by the House Appropriations Committee, it is important to keep in mind that these new spending levels would only become effective if the overall statutory spending caps currently in place are lifted significantly and the Senate agrees to the same levels.

After adopting the subcommittee 302(b)s and taking up a number of amendments, the committee approved the  Labor-HHS-Education measure by a vote of 30 to 23.

 

More Details of House Labor-HHS Bill Available

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When the House Appropriations Committee convenes later this morning, it will take up a Labor-HHS-Education measure that includes increases for myriad programs of importance to the University of Washington.

Biomedical/health-care

In the arena of biomedical research and health-care related matters, as previously noted, the bill would increase funding to NIH by $2 billion to $41.1 billion.

The measure would also increase support to the Health Resources and Services Administration by $472 million above the current level to a total of $7.32 billion.  Within that amount, the Health Professions portfolio would be funded at $854.9 million, an increase of $108.2 million.

The Centers for Disease Control would see a bump of $920 million to a total of $8.26 billion, with $1.35 billion slated for the Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotions account.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health would see an increase of $10 million to $346.3 million in FY2020.

The bill would fund the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at $5.86 billion, an increase of $114.5 million.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality would be increased by $20 million to $358.2 million in FY2020.

Student Aid/ Higher Education

With respect to student aid and higher education programs, the bill would increase the Pell Grant maximum award by $150 to $6,345.  The bill would direct $2 million to the Institute for Education Sciences to study the effectiveness of the Second Chance Pell Program.

Other student aid and higher education programs of interest to UW and the broader higher education community would seen increases as well, including:

  • SEOG:  an increase of $188 million to $1.03 billion
  • Federal Work-Study:  an increase of $304 million to $1.43 billion
  • TRIO:  $1.16 billion total, an increase of $100 million
  • GEAR UP:  $395 million total, an increase of $35 million
  • GAANN:  $24 million, a $1-million increase

On the international education front, the domestic portion of Title VI would see a $15.3-million increase to a total of $80.4 million while the “overseas” portion would be increased by $1.7 million to $8.7 million.

The Institute for Educational Sciences would be funded at a total of $650 million, which would represent a $34-million increase above the current level.  Within that about, $205 million is slated for research and $61 million would be allocated to research on special education.