On to the Senate

Posted on July 26, 2019

By a vote of 284 to 149, the House cleared yesterday H. R. 3877, the bipartisan package that would increase the debt limit and increase the spending levels for the next two fiscal years.

Even after an agreement was reached earlier in the week, there were some questions as to whether the President supported it. Before the House vote, he tweeted his support for the measure. In the end, less than half of the House Republicans supported the bill.

The legislation now heads over to the Senate for its consideration next week before the chamber clears out for the month of August. The House is now in recess until after Labor Day.

Read more about the vote here, here, and here.

House Takes Up Budget Agreement

Posted on July 25, 2019

With the August recess scheduled to start this weekend serving as the impetus, the House will take up later today the two-year budget deal that was agreed to by the Congressional Democrats and the White House.

The agreement would, among other things, increase the debt limit as well as raise the spending caps on discretionary programs for next year and the year after. Although the two sides agreed to the deal, several members of Congress have noted that nothing is certain until the legislation is actually signed into law by the President.

The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure next week, before it goes into recess for the month of August.

Read more about the deal and the vote here and here.

Budget and Debt Limit Agreement Reached

Posted on July 23, 2019

Following a series of phone calls and in-person negotiations, an agreement was reached last evening that would, if signed into law, raise both the debt limit and the spending levels for next year and FY2021. Shortly after President Trump announced that a deal was agreed to, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed the announcement.

The deal addresses two different issues. First, it would increase debt limit for two years and, in theory, push the issue into 2021, after the next election cycle.

Second, the deal would also increase the spending limits for FY2020 and FY2021. Without such a deal, budget caps below the current level of spending would need to be imposed for the next two years.

As a result of the new deal, spending levels next year and the year after would increase by a total of $321 billion and $77 billion of that would partially be offset by extension of certain fees and accounting changes.

For FY2020, spending on defense programs would be increased to $738 billion, a 3.1-percent increase above the current level. Non-defense discretionary programs are slated to receive a total of $632 billion, 4.5 percent above the current level. In FY2021, defense spending would increase to $740.5 billion and spending on non-defense would go up to $634.5 billion.

While the deal has been publicly endorsed by the Trump White House and the Congressional Democrats, it must still be signed into law. With the House scheduled to go into a six-week recess starting this weekend and the Senate expected to follow suit next Friday, Congressional leadership is trying to get the measure enacted by the House Thursday, which would allow the Senate to act before its August recess.

Read more about the negotiations and the deal here, here, and here.

Additional Information About FY2020 Budget Proposal Available

Posted on March 13, 2019

Additional details about the President’s FY2020 budget requests for various agencies are becoming available. In the bigger picture, this additional level of information is not as detailed as what we expect to see later this spring.

For example, the top line USGS budget document shows that the Administration proposes to eliminate the Cooperative Research Unit program while seeking to move and reorganize the Climate Adaptation Science Centers. It also calls for the Earthquake Early Warning system to be funded at $8.2 million.

The research budget proposal from the Pentagon, the “R-1,” seeks to reduce funding for DoD basic research by 11.4 percent and DoD science and technology by 11.9 percent compared to FY2019 levels.

NASA would see a cut of about $500 million below the enacted FY2019 level. Within the larger NASA Administration proposal, Space Grant and WFIRST would both be eliminated. See here, and here. Space News also takes a look at the NASA budget request.

Office of Federal Relations will continue to provide additional details.

President’s FY2020 Budget

Posted on March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

Today, the Administration released its FY 2020 President’s budget request (PBR) to Congress. This budget is the first step in the annual Congressional appropriations cycle. The annual PBR is a political and policy document indicative of the goals of the Administration for the coming year.

The $4.7 trillion FY 2020 budget released today would sharply reduce spending on safety-net programs, while effectively exempting the Pentagon from strict spending caps set to take effect in FY 2020.

The PBR assumes the scheduled FY 2020 and 2021 sequester cuts to domestic spending, which is effectively a 10 percent reduction to nondefense programs from current levels. The budget would reduce the overall level of nondefense spending by nearly $30 billion reduction and would increase military spending by 5 percent, to $750 billion from $716 billion received in FY 2019. It requests $8.6 billion for new barriers along the southern U.S. border, including $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military-construction budget. The president’s blueprint would also provide additional funding to boost manpower at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and it proposes policy changes to end so-called sanctuary cities.

The Administration’s budget proposed $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade of which $1.9 trillion is cuts to mandatory spending programs. Specifically within those programs, the Administration proposes to cut $22 billion from safety-net programs next year—$327 billion over the next decade—and proposes new work requirements for recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and federal housing programs.

Within the discretionary nondefense side of the ledger, cuts were proposed to:

$87.1 billion for HHS (a 12 percent cut)
$34.36 billion for NIH (a 12 percent or $4.9 billion cut)
$5.8 billion for HRSA (a $1 billion cut)
$5.27 billion for CDC (a $1.2 billion cut)
$31.7 billion for Energy, (an 11 percent cut) and requests $5.5 billion for Office of Science (a 9 percent decrease) while eliminating Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
$62.0 billion for ED (an $8.5 billion or 12 percent cut) and eliminating, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants
$12.2 billion for Commerce (a $1.0 billion or a 9.3-percent increase), but eliminations to the Sea Grant, Coastal Zone Management Grants, and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.
$12.5 billion for Interior (a 14 percent cut)
$7.1 billion for NSF (a 9 percent cut)
$21 billion for NASA (a 1.4 percent increase)

The budget specifics for HHS, ED, Energy, DOD, Interior, NOAA, and NASA should be forthcoming this week.

Other items included in the budget, the PBR proposes to streamline student loan repayment by consolidating multiple IDR plans into a single plan. The Single IDR plan would cap a borrower’s monthly payment at 12.5 percent of discretionary income. For undergraduate borrowers, any balance remaining after 180 months of repayment would be forgiven. For borrowers with any graduate debt, any balance remaining after 30 years of repayment would be forgiven. It would expand Pell Grant eligibility to include high-quality short-term programs. The budget proposes to restructure and streamline the TRIO and GEAR UP programs by consolidating them into a $950 million State formula grant.

NIH would continue to address the opioid epidemic, make progress on developing a universal flu vaccine, and support the next generation of researchers. The PBR includes a new, dedicated effort to support research and develop new treatments for childhood cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease among children and adolescents in the United States. The basic biology of childhood cancers is not fully understood and differs from that of adult cancers. The Budget includes increased funding and an innovative initiative to enable the Nation’s best researchers and doctors to learn from every child with cancer, providing the opportunity to comprehend finally the unique causes and the best cures for childhood cancer.