FY2014 Omnibus Stalled

Posted on January 8, 2014

Congressional leaders are trying to finalize a FY2014 omnibus spending package and have agreement on six of the 12 appropriations measures that cover discretionary spending for federal programs. Despite the progress, lingering disagreements are making it increasingly likely that a draft of a final agreement won’t make it to House and Senate leaders until possibly over the weekend. That means Congress could miss a January 15th deadline for final passage and need a short-term stopgap spending measure to avert another government shutdown.

Lawmakers had hoped that the two-year budget deal negotiated by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and approved by Congress in December would allow appropriators to iron out their differences and move quickly on a spending bill. The omnibus bill currently being negotiated will dole out the $1.012 trillion top-line budget number from December’s deal to each of the 12 areas of federal spending.

The six parts that are reportedly completed are the Defense; Agriculture; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Legislative Branch; and Commerce, Justice and Science bills. The Energy-Water and Homeland Security portions of the package are nearing completion. However, talks on other measures – such as Labor-HHS-Education, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and Financial Services – have been complicated by ongoing disagreements such as funding for the 2010 health care law, the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul, and abortion policy.

Surprise! White House Delays Budget Submission

Posted on January 7, 2014

The White House is said to be at least a month behind its own schedule for developing a FY2015 budget, which by statute is supposed to be submitted to Congress on the first Monday in February. That will slow work on next year’s spending bills, even though the budget accord negotiated by Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) established overall discretionary spending levels.

The Ryan-Murray agreement set the discretionary top line at $1.014 trillion for FY2015, which begins October 1, 2014. Overall, the measure raises discretionary spending by almost $19 billion next year, replacing previously scheduled sequester cuts with a mix of user fees and changes in mandatory spending programs designed to save $85 billion over a decade.

There is no penalty for a late presidential budget submission, but appropriators cannot hold hearings until they have a chance to review the administration’s proposals. Last year, Obama’s budget was released two months late, in early April, a delay that factored into Congress’ failure to clear any FY2014 spending bills this past year.

Source: CQ.com

FY2014 Appropriations Update

Posted on January 2, 2014

Happy New Year! After a short break for the holidays, Congress will return to Washington, DC next week to resume work on FY2014 appropriations before the current CR runs out on January 15th. House and Senate Appropriations committee staff worked through the holidays to try to pull together a draft omnibus bill, a legislative package that would combine all 12 spending bills into one large piece of legislation. About half of the 12 bills – those covering the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Veterans Affairs, and major science agencies – have been largely finalized. But some of the remaining bills are controversial and appropriators may not be able to come to agreement on overall funding for those agencies, including Labor-HHS-Education and Interior. If they can’t come to some agreement to include funding for these agencies in the omnibus they will likely advance a yearlong CR providing level funding. We should have confirmation one way or another by the middle of next week.