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Category: Budget

Defunding Health Reform Tied to CR

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Update 9/20: The House voted 230-189 to pass the Continuing Resolution which is coupled with a provision to defund Obamacare. It now heads to the Senate where it will almost certainly fail as-is – and the chamber will restore funding, before heading back to the House. Both chambers must come to a consensus and approve a funding bill before October 1st to avoid a government shutdown.

The House Republicans are setting the stage for a possible gov’t shutdown on September 30th. They have just decided to couple a continuing resolution (CR) through December 15th with language defunding the Affordable Care Act, which will definitely get enough votes to pass the House. They could vote as early as tomorrow but more likely Friday or even Saturday. The strategy is to let the Senate Republicans take on the fight on their side through filibuster. The Senate, however, is unlikely to agree to the House bill so the shenanigans will continue into next week and right up to the end of the federal fiscal year. House leadership sees this as a way to force Senate Democrats and the President to negotiate on a delay in health care reform implementation, debt ceiling hike, tax reform, and possibly approving the Keystone pipeline.

17 Days to End of Fiscal Year

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Congress has gone home for the weekend with no new developments on reaching an agreement to fund the government after the fiscal year ends September 30th. It may be too early to talk about government shutdown, but just in case I thought I’d pull up the helpful 2011 FAQ from The Chronicle of Higher Education on what the impacts might be on higher education. We can certainly handle a shutdown for a few days if it comes to that – and today, with no action and no viable plan in sight, it certainly seems possible.

And We’re Back… To Fiscal Issues

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What a difference a couple of days makes here in the nation’s capitol. On Monday, President Obama and Congress were still projecting a vote to take military action in Syria. But this morning it appears that the pause button has been pushed on that topic and lawmakers are once again turning to fiscal issues.

Late yesterday, House Republican leadership proposed a $986.3 billion short-term, stopgap spending bill (H J Res 59) that would fund federal government into FY14 at current funding levels. The proposed continuing resolution (CR) would avoid a government shut down as we quickly approach the end of the fiscal year on September 30th and would fund government through December 15th – giving lawmakers plenty of time to come to an agreement on how best to fund government for FY14.

The CR contains a handful of provisions to allow limited funding flexibility for some agencies. For example, the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies would be able to maintain current staffing levels to ensure border security operations and immigration activities continue. The CR also allows some additional funding for the Department of Interior and the Forest Service for wildfire suppression efforts, the Veterans Benefits Administration for disability claims processing, and some flexibility for federal weather satellite programs.

But it is not yet clear as to when the House will vote on the proposed CR. The House Republican caucus is divided over leaders’ plan to pair the CR with a separate resolution withdrawing funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act in fiscal 2014. But House conservatives are not happy with the plan that they say would create yet another symbolic vote against the health care law while allowing implementation to move forward. Conservatives want the CR to block all health overhaul funding and some have also called for adding a provision banning lawmakers and staff from receiving government contributions towards their health care premiums.

Using the fiscal 2013 spending level of about $988 billion would mark a compromise, as some House conservatives want to see spending in the CR set to the $967 billion level dictated for fiscal 2014 by the Budget Control Act (PL 112-25). Senate Democrats say they are ready to move forward with a plan that runs into December, even if it is based on a simple extension of spending at the annual level used in FY13.

Meanwhile, the Bipartisan Policy Center announced yesterday that the federal government could default as early as October 18th. This matches the administration’s projection. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to raise the debt limit without any conditions and ruled out any negotiations over it after a protracted debt limit fight two years ago.

Welcome Back Congress!

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Congress returns to work today after a long summer break. When they left town five weeks ago, it looked like the legislative fall schedule would focus on domestic issues: the budget and debt limit, immigration, health care reform, and maybe even education or higher education issues. Now it appears that most of the nine working days in September (that’s right, just nine working days!) will be focused on foreign policy as Congress decides how best to handle the crisis in Syria.

This change in agenda is not all bad. Because of the Syria issue, Congress will likely approve a continuing resolution – for 60 or 90 days – without much of the anticipated drama about government shutdown as the federal fiscal year comes to a close on September 30th. The CR is expected to continue discretionary spending into FY14, likely at the current rate of roughly $988 billion annually (level funded). The stopgap is not expected to contain any controversial policy riders, but could carry some technical provisions and reauthorize some expiring programs.

Movement on the CR effectively ends any chance lawmakers had of sending stand-alone FY14 spending bills to the President’s desk for signature. While most of the annual spending bills have been approved by both the House and Senate appropriations committees, none have cleared Congress. The best hope for individual spending bills clearing is that they could be bundled together in a year-end omnibus funding measure later this year. A possible complication is the need for Congress to increase the federal debt limit to enable further borrowing and prevent defaulting on loans. That needs to happen by early to mid-October according to recent Administration comments. Given that the CR will likely run through November or December, it looks like the big domestic fiscal debate will come in October or November instead of September – barring any further foreign policy snafus.

CR and Syria

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Congress will return to the US Capitol on Monday after a long August recess period. And in the nine working days they have scheduled for September, the focus will be on the instability in Syria and on-going fiscal issues.

The House is likely to take up a short-term, stopgap funding measure – continuing resolution (CR) – next week that will fund federal government beyond into the new fiscal year beginning on October 1st. This action is necessary to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month as Congress has been unable to come to any agreement on FY14 budget and appropriations bills. Action on a CR will delay fiscal fights until Congress decides whether to grant President Obama authority to launch a military strike against Syria.

The CR is expected to contain few, if any, controversial riders and is not expected to last more than two to three months. It’s likely to continue discretionary spending into FY14 at the current rate of roughly $988 billion – or level funding. Both parties are looking at the CR and delay in FY14 appropriations as a negotiating tool to force action to modify the sequester and increase the nation’s borrowing limit by mid-October.