Following up on yesterday’s ruling on ending explicit use of race in admissions, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down earlier today the Biden Administration’s loan cancellation proposal. In a 6 – 3 decision, the court’s majority ruled that the Education Department did not have the authority to cancel loans. The decision is available here.
News and updates
UNC Chapel Hill, Harvard Admissions Practices Struck Down
In a much awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning that the admissions practices at both Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill are unconstitutional because of how race is in their decisions.
The entirety of the ruling is available here.
Examples of initial analyses of the ruling are available here, here, and here.
NDAA Markups Set for This Week
Both the House and Senate are set to have full committee mark ups for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. HASC Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) expressed his praise for the bipartisan work of the seven subcommittees so far, however there are still many partisan issues to be addressed including disagreements related to the Space Command Headquarters and abortion polices in the military. The House’s spending bill includes about $826 billion for new discretionary funding, about $285 billion more than President Biden’s request. Democrats have signaled their disagreement with the bill by calling out the $1.1 billion in cuts to salaries for civilian personnel, the $714 million cut to climate change programs and $100 million cut to DEI efforts that are included in the House bill. Another key part of the House bill includes a $9 billion investment in the Indo-Pacific region focused on deterring Chinese aggression.
The Senate full committee will meet for what could be a three-day full committee markup of the 2024 NDAA. Read more about here.
House Appropriations Process Under Way — Funding Allocations Expected Soon
Now that the debt ceiling package was passed, Congress is working on the appropriation bills. Today, the House Appropriations Committee is expected to approve 302(b) funding allocations for all 12 spending measures which sets the top line limit for all discretionary spending under each bill. The committee also released the Energy-Water bill (full text available here; summary available here) and the Defense bill (full text available here; summary available here). Yesterday, the committee approved the FY24 Military Construction-VA spending bill on a party-line vote.
Although the debt ceiling negotiations ended in a “deal”, there is still deep divides over discretionary spending between Democrats and Republicans. House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) internally released 302(b) funding allocations on Monday and CQ reports that the allocations “total $1.471 trillion, or $119 billion less than the spending caps outlined in the debt ceiling package negotiated by McCarthy and President Joe Biden and $131 billion less than the current fiscal year.” House Democrats will continue to fight against these spending cuts. Our office will continue to monitor progress as the appropriations process continues.
Congress Finally Passes Debt Ceiling Bill, Narrowly Avoiding Default
Last week, the debt ceiling bill was passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by President Biden on Saturday lifting the debt ceiling until January 2025, narrowly missing the deadline for default on the country’s debt. The agreement caps non-defense spending at FY23 levels and allows for only a 1% increase in FY2025. Now that the caps have been set, appropriators will determine the specific levels of funding for agencies and programs. As always, we will track progress on our appropriations tracker found here.