Today, the White House has issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) on H.R. 244, the Consolidated Appropriations bill, also known as the FY 2017 Omnibus. While the White House says it is concerned that Congress did not go far enough in funding some priorities, it is a good first step, but priorities should be funded in FY 2018.
Long and short, no veto threat on this bill, but maybe the next one.
At 2 am last night, House and Senate appropriators released the FY 2017 Omnibus, which comprises the 11 unfinished FY 2017 appropriations bills, providing fresh spending instructions for nearly every corner of the federal government and formally appropriates more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending for FY 2017, in keeping with the spending limits agreed to last year. A high level overview is below.
Overall, the FY 2017 Omnibus provides an annualized total of $1.07 trillion in base spending for FY 2017, or $1.16 trillion including Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. Beyond the top line, and widely reported, the FY 2017 Omnibus includes a $2 billion increase to NIH or a 6.2 percent increase over current levels. The deal includes an extra $1.5 billion to enhance border security, but there is no money to begin construction of Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Additionally, appropriators absolutely rejected about $18 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary programs that Trump had suggested to avoid further expanding the deficit in his FY 2017 supplemental request. To boost funding for the military and border security, lawmakers increased by $15 billion the OCO spending, which does not count against statutory budget cap.
While the budget numbers will look big on paper, they will have less meaning in the real world because most of the money to be formally appropriated has already been spent, since there are only five months remaining in the current FY 2017, which runs through Sept. 30.
The most recent stopgap (H.J.Res. 99), enacted Friday, keeps the government open through May 5. The Omnibus legislation could see a House could vote as soon as Wednesday. Once the Omnibus passes the House, it will move on to the Senate.
The legislation did resolve a significant amount of big political sticking points, including:
Labor-H
Health Provisions
Report language of note:
NIH
“Funding from the 21st Century Cures Act was previously appropriated for fiscal year 2017 by section 194 of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2017. Per the authorization, $300,000,000 is transferred to the National Cancer Institute for cancer research and $52,000,000 will be allocated from the NIH Innovation Fund, in this agreement reflected in the Office of the Director, for the Precision Medicine Initiative cohort ($40,000,000), the BRAIN Initiative ($10,000,000), and regenerative medicine research ($2,000,000).”
Education Provisions
Report language of note:
TRIO:
“There is concern that the Department has rejected and made ineligible for review several fiscal year 2017 grant applications based on minor formatting issues. The Department is strongly encouraged to provide flexibility to such applicants by permitting submission of a corrected application. The Department should include consistent formatting requirements across all TRIO competitions in the future.”
Defense
Research Accounts:
6.1: $2.28 Billion (level)
6.2: $5.30 billion (+$30 million)
USDA
AFRI — $375 million (+$25 million)
McIntire-Stennis — $33.9 million (level)
CJS
E&W
Interior
Late last night, House Republican leadership decided to forego a vote on the ACA amendment by Rep. Tom MacArthur circulated earlier this week. MacArthur, who is the leader of the moderate Republican Tuesday Group, would shift how individuals with preexisting conditions are insured to the states. The amendment won the support of the conservative House Freedom Caucus by loosening insurance mandates, but didn’t gain many moderates. Additionally, the House Democrats announced that if the House voted on the amendment, Democrats would all vote against the much-needed, short-term CR to keep the government open though midnight Friday.
This morning, the House of Representatives passed the one-week CR to keep the government operating. It is an necessary step to avert a shutdown as negotiators continue to work on an agreement to extend funding through the remainder of the year via an omnibus appropriations measure.
The Senate unanimously passed a stopgap spending bill, about an hour after the measure was overwhelmingly approved by the House.
The bill funds the government for one week, avoiding a government shutdown at midnight. Lawmakers plan to pass a broader spending package next week to fund the government through September.
The Trump Administration released its initial tax proposal. There are still lots of questions and items to be negotiated. The rollout came via a press conference held by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. The highlights are below.
Personal Tax Reform
Business Tax Reform:
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Hill look closer to a deal as the Trump Administration has backed down on demands for a downpayment on the border wall in FY 2017.
A bigger sticking point has been the ACA subsidies. This afternoon, the White House has said that it will continue paying Affordable Care Act cost-sharing subsidies, removing the biggest remaining hurdle in the negotiations to avoid a government shutdown.
Negotiations continue, but a short term CR may still be in order.