Senate Defense Spending Bill Details Now Available

Posted on June 29, 2018

Research programs funded by the Defense Department would fare relatively well under the FY2019 Defense spending bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The report that outlines the spending details for the bill is available here.

In the report, the committee calls out the importance of basic research in the defense enterprise. The report reads, in part:

Basic Research.—The Committee understands that basic research is the foundation for Department of Defense innovation and future technologies. As the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) recently testified before the Committee: ‘‘The Department of Defense has the third largest investment among Federal agencies in basic research at U.S. universities, who have, through years of continued investments, been the source of many of today’s transformational technologies. Traditionally, the Department has viewed the role of universities as producing the research innovation, the Department of Defense labs as the mechanism to nurture these findings and to render them defense-applicable, and the defense industrial base to integrate these new technologies into acquisition programs.’’ Accordingly, the Committee recommends a total basic research investment of $2,798,456,000, an increase of $529,280,000 above the fiscal year 2019 budget request. This includes an additional $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Army; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Navy; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force; and $100,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide.

The Basic Research portfolio would be divided up in the following manner:

Army: $582.6 million
Navy: $737.9 million
Air Force: $642.8 million
Defense-wide: $835.1 million

Funds for the Applied Research portfolio would be allocated in the following manner under this bill:

Army: $1,166 billion
Navy: $1,027 billion
Air Force: $1,430 billion
Defense-wide: $1,953 billion

As noted above, additional details are available in the report.

Appropriations Process Continues to Move Forward

Posted on June 28, 2018

The FY2019 appropriations process continued to move forward today.

The House agreed to its version of the Defense spending bill by a vote of 359 to 49. The detailed report for the bill is available here.

In the Senate, the full Appropriations Committee adopted its version of the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills. While most of the details from the two bills are not yet available, the bills’ highlights have been posted by committee here and here.

Senate Bill Calls for Bigger NIH Increase

Posted on June 26, 2018June 26, 2018

The Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee reported out this morning its FY2019 bill. While most of the legislation’s details are not yet available, Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) highlighted during his remarks the $2-billion increase in the bill slated for NIH. He also called out the proposed Pell Grant maximum of $6,195 and the continuation of the year-round Pell. A press release about the highlights of the bill is available here.

The bill is slated to be taken up by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday, when the panel will also consider the Defense bill.

More details will be posted as they become available.

In Other Appropriations News…

Posted on June 26, 2018

As expected, the Senate took up and passed last night its version of the first three-bill “minibus” package by a vote of 86 to 5. The vehicle contains the FY2019 Energy and Water, Military Construction-VA, and Legislative Branch spending bills. With the House having passed the same set of bills earlier this summer, the bills now will proceed to conference.

The Defense spending bill is expected to make its way through the Senate committee process this week, with subcommittee action expected this morning and full committee consideration scheduled for Thursday. Meanwhile, the House committee-approved Defense bill is expected on the House floor later week.

We will continue to provide updates.

Progress and Delay on Labor-HHS-Education Bill

Posted on June 26, 2018

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to take up today its FY2019 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill. The legislation funds, among other agencies and programs, those that support biomedical research and student financial aid, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Pell Grants. The committee markup, however, has been postponed until after the July Fourth recess. While Republicans are citing scheduling issues as the cause of the postponement, Democrats are claiming that the delay is due to Republican concerns about amendments that will likely be offered by Democrats to address family separation issues during the markup session.

As it stands, the current version of the legislation, the details of which are available here, would hold the Pell Grant maximum steady at $6,095 while funding the program at $22.475 billion overall. With respect to other financial aid and higher education programs, Work Study would receive $1.13 billion while TRIO and GEAR-UP would be funded at $1.01 billion and $360 million, respectively. SEOG would also bevlevel funded at $840.0 million.

International Education-Title VI programs and the Institute for Education Sciences would be held level at $72.1 million and $613 million, respectively, by the House bill.

On the biomedical research front, NIH would see an increase of $1.25 billion under this bill and would receive $38.33 billion. The Health Resources and Services Administration would receive $6.54 billion under this bill.

On the other side of the Hill, the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to take up its version of the FY2019 bill later this morning. The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the legislation on Thursday, when it is also expected to consider the Defense spending bill. The Office of Federal Relations will report on the details as they become available.