Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Budget

They’re Back (tho’ the Senate Never Left)

Posted on

DC typically has a strong law enforcement presence, and now, officers are everywhere on the Hill today because it’s National Police Week and the 36th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service is today on the West Front of the Capitol.

The Senate continues to consider nominations. Up first, Jeffrey Rosen is Trump’s pick to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation. He worked at the department as general counsel during the George W. Bush administration. He also did a stint at the Office of Management and Budget when Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) was OMB Director. If confirmed, Rosen would face the day-to-day responsibilities of running an agency with more than 50,000 employees and a budget this year of about $76 billion. Rosen would also be a key player in any infrastructure legislation to be considered by Congress later this year.

The House will spend most of the week concentrating on hearings. Most importantly, hearings regarding FY 2018. With just three-and-a half months left to complete work on FY 2018 appropriations (not counting the month-long August recess), appropriators still have not started drafting any of the 12 standing spending bills. That’s because there is still no budget blueprint or any agreement on overall spending limits. President Donald Trump’s full budget request for FY 2018 (that begins October 1) is due to be unveiled next week, on May 23. Keep in mind, Presidential budget plans are traditionally submitted in early February, but new Administration, including Obama’s, are often late in submitting their first budget. The current Administration has already submitted a skinny budget document. 

To give context, hearings normally held in February and March are just getting underway now — in mid-May. Much of that was due to Congress wrapping up the FY 2017 cycle at the beginning of May. However, may of the FY 2018 efforts are still stymied by the lack of a FY 2018 budget resolution that sets the discretionary spending caps (known as 302(b)s) that gives House and Senate Appropriators. Right now, the FY 2018 Budget is tied up in ACA repeal and the AHCA.

Other things to watch for this week…

A second federal appeals court will hear arguments Monday over whether the Trump Administration should be able to implement its revised travel ban, this time with an expected audience of millions watching via live video stream. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit hears one hour of arguments on the case starting at 12:30 p.m. ET in a Seattle courtroom. Interested viewers can tune in via the court’s live stream or on C-SPAN’s website. Most major networks will also be televising the arguments.

Expect Congress to be incredibly upset about the malware, derived from the NSA leak earlier this year, that crippled the British National Health Service’s computer systems on Friday, among others. The impacts continue to be felt today in Asia, as workers were headed out or gone for the weekend when the UK was hit.  The Wall Street Journal has the fascinating story about how a 22-year-old U.K. researcher stumbled upon the virus’s “kill switch” through a $10.69 website.

FY2018 President’s Budget Proposal Expected Tues, 5/23

Posted on

The full President’s Budget Proposal for FY 2018 is expected to be released on Tuesday, May 23. Earlier this year, the Administration released the  America First “skinny” budget proposal as well as supplemental appropriations request for FY 2017.

Earlier this month, Congress passed the FY 2017 omnibus appropriations measure, which completed the FY 2017 appropriations cycle. The omnibus appropriations bill which provides fresh spending instructions for nearly every corner of the federal government. It formally appropriates more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending for FY 2017, in keeping with the spending limits agreed to last year. Additionally, appropriators absolutely rejected the Trump Administration’s supplemental FY 2017 request for $18 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary programs.

Office of Federal Relations will continue to monitor and report on developments on the budget front.

House Out, Senate Still Working

Posted on

The House is out for a pre-scheduled recess this week — and likely to do a victory lap about passing the AHCA last week — while the Senate continues to move through nominations, Russian investigations, and maybe health care reform.

Also last week, FY 2017 funding is finally secured, and Congress is beginning to take stock of how far behind schedule they are for FY 2018.  There are now only four-and-a-half months left before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 – and that includes the month-long August recess. Typically, at this point in the Congressional calendar, at least one of the 12 standing appropriations bills has been marked up by committee and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are well on their way to drafting the other standing bills.

However, there is no guidance for appropriators on the annual spending limits, which is something set up by the annual budget measurers, which has yet to be passed by the House and Senate. The House took a first step with the AHCA last week, but within hours of the passage of the House legislation, Republican Senators made clear they didn’t support the measure and would begin drafting their own version…and that might take a while…like August. 

President Donald Trump has yet to submit a full FY 2018 budget request, which is typically due in early February. While the President offered an outline of discretionary spending plans in March, his full budget is not likely to come before May 22, and even then, it is unclear how in depth the budget released might be.

Stay tuned.

FY 2017 Omnibus Released

Posted on

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:

  • provide a permanent fix for a depleted health fund needed by thousands of retired coal miners;
  • shore up Puerto Rico’s troubled Medicaid program with an extra $295 million;
  • provide $2 billion in disaster relief for California, West Virginia, Louisiana and North Carolina;
  • combat wildfires with an extra $407 million;
  • $68 million to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for the costs of protecting Trump and his family, predominantly in Manhattan;
  • provide $100 million to combat opioid abuse; and
  • preserve federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

 

 

Labor-H

                Health Provisions

  • NIH — $34.1 billion (+$2.0 million)
    • Fogarty Center receives $72,213,000 (+$1.7 million)
  • AHRQ received: $324,000,000 (Slight cut of ~$8 million)
  • SAMSHA — $3.6 billion (+ $130.5 million above the previous Administration’s budget request. Includes an increase of $150 million for treatment of opioid and heroin programs)
  • CDC – $7.3 billion (+ $22 million above the fiscal year 2016 enacted level. This includes $6.3 billion in appropriated funds, as well as $891 million in transfers from the Prevention and Public Health Fund.)
    • NIOSH– $335.2M (about + $4M)
  • ERC Program $29 million (+$500 thousand)
  • AFF Program $25.5 million (+$500 thousand)
    • Chronic Disease Prevention — $1.112 billion ($777.6 million in discretionary, $338.0 million in transfers)
  • Prevention research centers — $25.5 M
  • Worker Health will receive “not less than FY16 levels”
  • HRSA — $6.4 billion for HRSA (+ $77 million)
    • Health Professions Title VII – $301M (- , but language below in dentistry
    • Nursing Title VIII — $229 million (level)
  • National Institute of Nursing Research receives $150,273,000 for nursing research.

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

  • IES — $605.267 million (- $13 million)
  • GEAR Up — $339.7 million (+$17 million)
  • TRIO — $950 million (+$50 million)
  • Pell
    •  Maximum award will be increased to $5,935, funded by a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds
    • Year-round Pell restored
    • $1.3 B in surplus reallocated
  • Title VI international– $72.2 million (flat)

 

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

  • NSF– $7.4 overall
    • MREFC– $209.0 Million (+$8.7 million, $121.9 million for 3 research vessels)
  • NOAA
    •  Integrated Ocean Observing System– $30.7 million (+$1.2 million)
  • Adopts IOOS language from both bills (will need to go through again) and encourages use of HF radars
    • OAR CI’s– $60.0 M (level)
    • Sea Grant– $63.0 M (- $10.0 M)
  • NASA
    • Space Grant– $40.0 M (level)
    • Earth Science– $1.92 B (level)

E&W

  • EERE — $761 million (+$40 million)
    • Water Power Energy R&D $84 million (+$14 million)
  • ARPA-E — $276 million (+$15 million)
  • Office of Science – $5.4 billion (+$40 million)
    • Fusion — $330 million (+$7 million)

 

Interior

  • EPA Science and Technology — $91.9 million (-$9 million)
    The bill provides $713,823,000 to be partially offset by a $7,350,000 rescission for a net discretionary appropriation of$706,473,000. The bill transfers $15,496,000 from the Hazardous Substance Superfund account to this account.

    • Chemical safety and sustainability – $ 126.9 million (-$9 million)
    • National priorities — $4.1 million (-$10 million, but over the FY2017 request of $0)
    • Safe and sustainable water resources — $106.2 million (-$1.1 million)
    • Sustainable and healthy communities — $ 134.3 million (-$5.6 million)
  • USGS
    • CRU’s– $17.4 million (level)
    • Earthquake Early Warning– $10.2 M (+ $2 M)
  • NEH– $149.8 million (+$1.9 million)

 

 

Another Short-Term Funding Measure Unveiled

Posted on

In order to buy more time for the two parties, the two chambers, and Congress and the White House to negotiate with each other on a spending package for the remainder of FY2017, Congressional leaders have unveiled a short-term measure that would keep the government funded for another week. Without an extension, the current funding agreement expires at midnight this Saturday.

The short-term measure would extend funding through next Friday, May 5.