And here comes the NEXT Spending Battle

Posted on February 25, 2019

Although the FY2019 spending situation has finally been resolved, another potentially protracted spending fight is already underway. Without an agreement to lift the statutory limits on how much the government can spend during FY2020, the federal government is looking at a very steep fiscal cliff and significant automatic cuts.

In 2011, House and Senate negotiators came up with, and the Obama Administration agreed to, a plan that was considered so potentially draconian that no one thought that parts of the plan would ever be allowed to come to fruition. The overarching goal of the plan was to cut mandatory spending. The intent was to force cuts in mandatory spending by imposing automatic cuts (or popularly called “sequesters”) to the discretionary part of the budget– both defense and non-defense– with statutory cuts placed on each part of the discretionary budget for 10 years.

The mandatory savings never materialized, and over the last eight years, sequesters have been avoided only as a result of two-year deals that raised the spending limits imposed on both defense and non-defense discretionary (“NDD”) programs. The last deal that lifted the cap applied to FY2018 and FY2019.

All of this means that, for FY2020, without an agreement that lifts the statutory limit on discretionary programs, we are facing a mandatory cut of $126 billion below FY2019 levels. As a result of the 2011 agreement, discretionary defense programs would be subject to a cut of $71 billion while the domestic agencies and programs funded through discretionary funds– such as NIH and NSF– would be forced to deal with a cut of $55 billion in FY2020. An agreement must also be reached for FY2021 in order to prevent similar automatic cuts.

Advocacy groups have mobilized to draw Congressional attention to the serious problems surrounding maintaining current spending caps. Congressional discussions have begun and the situation will take months to resolve.

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.

Funding Bill Includes Increases

Posted on February 14, 2019

An initial review of the conference report shows that it contains increases for a number of agencies and accounts of interest to UW.

For example, the bill would fund NSF at $8.075 billion, an increase of $308 million above the FY2018 level. Wtihin NSF, the bill would fund:

Research and Related Activities at $6.52 billion
Education and Human Resources at $910 million
Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction at $295.7 million

With respect to NASA, the bill would appropriate $6.91 billion to the Science Mission Directorate while it would support the Space Technology Directorate at $926.9 million. The Aeronautics Directorate would receive $725 million under this bill.

We will provide additional updates.

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.

UW Physician Testifies in Senate HELP Committee

Posted on February 5, 2019

Today, Dr. Katherine Bennett testified in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at the invitation of Senator Patty Murray. The hearing, titled “How Primary Care Affects Health Care Costs and Outcomes,” can be viewed on the HELP committee’s website here.