Category: Budget

The House will vote this week on the final conference report on the FY12 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science (CJS), and Transportation/Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill – also known as the “Mini-bus” (House Report 112-284). The package also contains a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown and continue federal operations until December 16, 2011 – or until Congress completes the remaining nine FY12 Appropriations bills. This CR is a “clean” extension and includes no new funding provisions.

Overall Funding Levels– The Conference Report upholds the overall regular (base) discretionary level of $1.043 trillion as agreed to in the Budget Control Act (BCA). The legislation also includes $2.3 billion disaster relief funding, which falls under the “disaster designation” cap set by the BCA.

Continuing Resolution – Funding for all federal programs and agencies not included in the three underlying Appropriations bills in this conference agreement will be extended until December 16, 2011. This is a date-change extension only – no other funding changes are included in the CR portion of the agreement.

Agricultural Research – The conference agreement provides more than $2.5 billion for agricultural research programs, including the Agricultural Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This is a reduction of $53 million from the FY11 level. Highlights include:

• AFRI funded at $264.5 million.
• Hatch Act funded at $264 million.
• Grants for cooperative forestry research funded at $33 million.

Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) – The bill provides $2.7 billion for the PTO – the full requested level. This amount is $588 million, or 28%, above last year’s level. The bill also includes language that allows PTO to keep and use excess fees should actual collections exceed estimates, subject to Congressional approval of spending plans.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – NIST is funded at $751 million, including an increase of $33 million above last year to support core NIST scientific research programs that help advance US competitiveness, innovation, and economic growth. In addition, funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program – which provides training and technical assistance to US manufacturers – is maintained at last year’s level of $128 million.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – The bill provides $4.9 billion for NOAA, which is $306 million (7%) above FY11 and $592 million (-11%) below the President’s request. Within this total, National Weather Service operations are funded at $903 million – $24 million above the current year – and a total of $924 million is included for the Joint Polar Satellite System weather satellite program. The conference agreement does NOT include funding to establish a new NOAA Climate Service. The Administration requested $322 million to establish this new entity within NOAA.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $17.8 billion in the conference agreement, which is $648 million below last year’s level and $924 million below the President’s request. Highlights include:

• $5.1 billion for NASA Science programs, which is $155 million above last year’s level. The agreement accommodates cost growth in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) by making commensurate reductions in other programs.
• $138.4 million for NASA education research and development activities.
• $40 million for the National Space Grant College program.

National Science Foundation (NSF) – The legislation funds NSF at $7 billion, which is $173 million above last year’s level and $734 million below the President’s request. Within this funding, NSF’s core research program is increased by $155 million to enhance basic research critical to innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness.  The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account is funded at $167.1 million, which is up $50 million from FY11.

Source:  House Rules web page, House Appropriations web page, CQ

The Office of Federal Relations Team is not making any holiday plans – for now – as it now looks like Congress won’t wrap up annual appropriations work nor consider recommendations for long-term deficit until just before Christmas.

House appropriators may try to expedite completion of overdue FY12 appropriations bills by adding one or two additional measures to what is now a three-bill Senate “minibus” package.  The Senate is expected to pass the first of several minibus bills soon after it returns from a weeklong recess next week.  Once the Senate takes this action, House Leaderships has indicated that they expect conference negotiations on the minibus to begin immediately, and that those talks would be completed quickly.

The Senate version of the minibus (HR 2112) contains three of the 12 regular appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began October 1^st – Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science (S 1572) and Transportation-HUD (S 1596).  The House might add continuing resolution (CR) language to that legislative vehicle that would keep the government operating past the November 18^th expiration of the current stopgap bill (PL 112-36).  A new CR might last until late December, when Congress is expected to be considering a broad deficit reduction package aimed at saving at least $1.2 trillion or more over the next decade.

The Senate has passed only one regular spending measure, the Military Construction-VA bill (HR 2055).  The House has passed six of the 12, but did so under an overall discretionary spending target of $1.019 trillion that is lower than the limit now in effect.  The House stopped considering individual appropriations bills after Congress set the current target of $1.043 trillion in the Budget Control Act enacted in August (PL 112-25).  Wrapping up FY12 appropriations will involve negotiating compromises on dollar amounts for programs and on efforts to change federal policy through limitations on spending or policy riders.  House appropriators, for example, have proposed using a draft Labor-HHS-Education spending bill to cut off money to enforce the 2010 health care overhaul (PL 111-148, PL 111-152).  House Republicans also have sought to weaken environmental regulation by adding amendments to the Interior-Environment appropriations bill (HR 2584).

Not to be overshadowed by appropriations efforts, Republicans and Democrats on the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee are laying out budget proposals this week that could serve as a starting point for intense negotiations over a final plan to save at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. 

Republicans outlined their plan behind closed doors yesterday one day after details of a $3 trillion Democratic proposal was released.  Details of the GOP plan are minimal, but it would rely largely on spending cuts and other non-tax revenue to exceed the savings mandate.  In part, the GOP plan is aimed at drawing contrasts with the Democratic plan, which would seek an equal mix of tax increases and spending cuts — including $500 million in Medicare and Medicaid reductions — to meet its mark.  

Neither plan stands a chance of being enacted in whole, but there are some signs in each plan that progress is being made among the committee’s 12 members on tough issues.  Both proposals take a “go big” approach and target savings upward of $2 trillion, Democrats are at least willing to consider cuts to entitlements, and the GOP does not appear to have completely ruled out a corporate tax overhaul.  

During a public hearing with the committee yesterday, CBO Director Elmendorf warned that caps on discretionary spending in the August debt deal (PL 112-25) could make it challenging for lawmakers to find more savings through cuts.  He added that the impact of the caps will be felt most heavily by programs rising at a rate faster than inflation, such as Pell grants for higher education, defense, and veterans’ health care.

Stay tuned for more political maneuvering as congressional leaders try to figure out how best to resolve both FY12 appropriations and long-term debt reduction.

While the House is in recess this week, the Senate will continue working on FY12 appropriations measures in an effort to create a path forward on completing those bills before the continuing resolution (CR) expires on November 18^th.  Later today, the Senate will test the waters with a “minibus,” which would include three spending bills together in one package of piece of legislation.  The other alternative is to put all 12 spending bills together in an omnibus bill, but the House leadership has indicated that this is not a viable option for their members. 

The minibus (HR 2112) being considered in the Senate this week includes an amended version of their FY12 Agriculture spending bill, as well as the Transportation-Housing Development (S 1596) and Commerce-Justice-Science (S 1572) spending bills.  If the Senate is successful in moving its first minibus, it seems likely that the House will also proceed in this way to avoid the larger omnibus option.

The minibus vs. omnibus option is not the only obstacle facing Congress as they struggle to complete the FY12 process.  Republicans in both the House and Senate are hoping to include a variety of policy riders to the FY12 ranging from abortion to farm dust.  Some conservatives have indicated that they will attempt to include many of the same policy riders that they tried to include during the FY11 battle earlier this year.  An October 4th legislative bulletin from the conservative Republican Study Committee listed several riders that are priorities for the conservative right, including a ban on federal funding for abortion providers, measures aimed at halting new environmental and net neutrality regulations, and efforts to strip funding for National Public Radio, the Palestinian Authority and the Legal Services Corp.

The problem is that a rider-laden spending bill doesn’t have a chance of approval in the Senate. Republican leadership will be forced to rely on Democrats to pass the bills, which will likely result in another threat of government shutdown as we wind down to November 18^th.