Happy New Year! After a short break for the holidays, Congress will return to Washington, DC next week to resume work on FY2014 appropriations before the current CR runs out on January 15th. House and Senate Appropriations committee staff worked through the holidays to try to pull together a draft omnibus bill, a legislative package that would combine all 12 spending bills into one large piece of legislation. About half of the 12 bills – those covering the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Veterans Affairs, and major science agencies – have been largely finalized. But some of the remaining bills are controversial and appropriators may not be able to come to agreement on overall funding for those agencies, including Labor-HHS-Education and Interior. If they can’t come to some agreement to include funding for these agencies in the omnibus they will likely advance a yearlong CR providing level funding. We should have confirmation one way or another by the middle of next week.
Category: Budget
Progress on FY2014 Appropriations
Appropriators continue to work on FY2014 spending bills with the hopes of advancing an omnibus bill that incorporates funding for the 12 annual spending bills. If an agreement cannot be reached on one or more of the 12 measures, appropriators will instead advance a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the affected agencies.
It is still not clear how the new $1.012 trillion dollar budget will be divided among the 12 spending measures. These allocations have been assigned to each subcommittee but so far none have been made public and probably won’t be until the draft omnibus is released next week sometime. This leaves little time for lawmakers to approve a spending package as the current CR expires on January 15th. House and Senate procedures mean even earlier deadlines as they are required to give members time to review the legislation before they vote.
Senate Gives Final Approval to Federal Budget Deal
The Senate this afternoon voted 64-36 to give final approval to the federal budget agreement reached by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). The House passed the measure last Thursday on a 332-94 bipartisan vote.
The budget sets spending levels at just above $1 trillion for FY2014 and FY2015 and includes $63 million in sequestration relief over the next two years which is directed to be split evenly between defense and non-defense discretionary programs. It is estimated that the agreement will reduce the deficit by $23 billion and all new spending is offset in other areas of the budget. The legislation also includes a 3 month extension of the doc-fix.
Congressional appropriators and their staff will now work through the next few weeks to draft spending bills with the goal of getting them passed through both chambers by the January 15th deadline, which is when the current Continuing Resolution expires.
Budget Deal Clears Procedural Hurdle
This morning, the bipartisan Budget deal, which would roll back the sharp Sequester spending cuts, cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate. The vote to invoke cloture — a procedural step that requires a 2/3rds vote ends and signals an end to debate and allows the measure to be voted upon by the Senate — ensures that the agreement will be passed and sent to President Obama in the coming days.
Senators voted 67 to 33 to end debate and proceed to final passage on the budget agreement. A final vote could come as soon as Tuesday evening if Senate Republicans agree to speed things up. Otherwise, the chamber is likely to send the measure to the White House late Wednesday
Murray to Speak on Bipartisan Budget Act Before Crucial Vote
At 9:50am ET today, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-WA) will deliver remarks on the Senate floor urging the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Murray will call on members of the Senate to vote to cut off a filibuster on the bipartisan compromise she reached with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which passed through the House of Representatives last week by an overwhelming 332-94 majority. The cloture vote is expected shortly following her speech. You can watch Senator Murray speak live on C-SPAN 2.