Don’t Forget, the Current CR Expires Next Week

Posted on November 13, 2019

While a large swath of Washington is preoccupied with the public impeachment hearings, which started earlier today, senior appropriators met yesterday to figure out a path forward on how to keep the government open past next Thursday. The current continuing resolution, which has kept the federal government open since October 1, expires at midnight, November 22.

It appears that at least the top appropriators– in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle– have agreed to push for a second CR that would last through December 20. The assumption is that such an agreement would buy Congress enough time pull together packages of spending bills for the rest of FY2020 before adjourning for the year. the wildcard is the Trump White House and its insistence on funding for a border wall as well as the possible impact of impeachment on spending negotiations.

At the end of the day, funding for most parts of the government would run out next Friday without any further action by Congress and the White House. Read more about the situation here.

One Step At A Time

Posted on October 31, 2019

After having agreed to take it up late last week, the Senate passed this afternoon a four-bill appropriations package by a vote of 84 – 9. The bundle, a Senate substitute to a House-passed bill, includes the following FY2020 funding bills: Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; Interior; and Transportation – Housing and Urban Development. This represents the first four spending bills passed by the Senate for the current fiscal year, which started October 1.

Senate Republican leaders had hoped that the passage of the first bundle would led to momentum to bring up a second package of bills that would include, among others, the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education measures. The Democrats have continuously objected to the two bills moving because of the DOD funds that would be used to build a Southern wall and fights over language on abortion in and the perceived lack of enough funding for the Labor-HHS bill. After the Senate agreed to the first four bills, it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to get cloture to move forward on the second set of bills. The vote was 51 -41.

Although the Senate has now passed four appropriations bills, there still is no agreement between the two chambers on how much funding is available overall for FY2020. The top line must be agreed to first before compromises on individual bills can be reached.

House Committee Still Working on HEA

Posted on October 30, 2019

Having lasted two days so far, the House Education and Labor Committee is still in the process of marking up the Democratic version of a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The committee is currently in recess, allowing members to vote on bills being considered on the floor.

By the time the session concludes, the committee will have entertained approximately 60 amendments.

We will follow up with further details after the conclusion of the markup.

A Step Forward

Posted on October 23, 2019

By a vote of 92 to 2, the Senate yesterday agreed to debate a package of four FY2020 spending bills. As noted yesterday, the bundle is a Senate substitute to a set of House-passed bills and includes the following measures: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.

Even if the Senate does ultimately approve the package, what happens after that still remains a mystery, as the second set of bills that may be considered contains some of the most controversial ones, including the Defense and Labor-HHS measures.

The continuing resolution signed into law in late September runs out November 22.

Yes, But How Much Progress?

Posted on October 22, 2019

The Senate might see some thawing on the appropriations front later this week, but how much thawing remains to be seen.

In an attempt to break through on the appropriations impasse that has faced the Senate for weeks, the Republican leadership in the chamber plans to file a cloture motion on a package of four spending bills that had near unanimous support in committee. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will file a motion to invoke cloture on a House-passed legislative package of bills. Should the vote be successful, the Senate would then seek to replace the House-approved measure with its own bundle of bills: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior and Environment, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. If and when the Senate approves its substitute, things will likely get trickier.

Senate Republicans hope that agreement on the first package will allow for movement on a second bundle of appropriations measures, a combination of bills much more controversial because of the partisan fights on issues like funding for the border wall and language on abortion policy. After agreeing to the first “minibus” of bills, the Republican goal is to move to the floor the Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs measures. The Democrats have signaled that, at this point, this may be a bridge too far.

Stay tuned.