After clearing a procedural hurdle earlier this week, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) was confirmed as NASA Administrator earlier this afternoon on a party line vote of 50 to 49.
Category: 2018 UW Federal Agenda
Omnibus Signed After Last Minute Veto Threat
After surprising most of Washington with a last minute tweet this morning threatening to veto the FY2018 omnibus spending bill, President Trump ultimately signed it into law this afternoon. As the last minute hurdles were being cleared on the Hill earlier this week, White House staff had assured Congressional Republicans that Trump would support the measure.
Earlier today, the President tweeted that he might veto the bill because it did not address the DACA issue and did not fully fund the border wall that he had wanted. Ultimately, he was persuaded to sign it to avoid a government shutdown.
Senate Clears Spending Package
A few hours after House did its part, the Senate cleared the FY2018 omnibus spending package by a vote of 65 – 32. President Trump has signaled that he will sign the measure, avoiding a shutdown, which would occur if it were not signed into law before midnight tonight.
House Passes Omnibus Package, Sends It to the Senate
The House passed the FY2018 omnibus spending bill at about 1 PM EDT by a vote of 256 to 167. The $1.3-trillion package now heads over to the Senate for its consideration. President Trump has indicated that he will sign it after Senate passage.
More Omnibus Details Available
On the Defense front, the omnibus package would fund DoD basic research (“6.1”) programs at a total of $2.34 billion, an increase of $114.6 million above the Administration request. Applied research (“6.2”) programs would be funded at $5.68 billion, or $708.2 million above the request.
Basic research funding breaks down in the following manner in the bill:
- Army: $470.0 million ($40 million above the request)
- Navy: $621.9 million ($26 million above the request)
- Air Force: $520.3 million ($15 million above the request)
- Defense-wide: $731.0 million ($33.6 million above the request)
Funding for applied research is divided up in the following manner:
- Army: $1.37 billion ($480.2 million above the request)
- Navy: $994.1 million ($108.0 million above the request)
- Air Force: $1.43 billion ($150.6 million above the request)
- Defense-wide: $1.88 billion ($30.6 million below the request)