The UW’s 2019 Federal Agenda has been finalized. You are welcome to click the link in the previous sentence to view it or find it on the sidebar to the right of this post. In addition, the 2019 Congressional Calendar is now posted.
News and updates
Meanwhile, in Non-Budget Related News…
In another demonstration of how unusual the current political times are, the House is expected to take up today H. J. Res. 46, a resolution disapproving President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to build a wall along the Southern border. The measure is expected to pass easily in that chamber. The remaining question in the House appears to be whether it will pass with enough votes to overturn a presidential veto. Should the resolution reach the his desk, the President has vowed to veto it, which would mark his first veto in office.
If the resolution passes the House, the Senate would be required to take it up and it would only require a majority for passage. With all Senate Democrats expected to support it, the question now is whether enough Republicans will join them to garner its passage. So far, three Republicans have declared their support for the resolution: Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Only one more would be needed for passage, but that would not be enough to make it veto-proof.
Read more about the issue here and here.
Meanwhile, in other news, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen is scheduled to appear before three different Congressional committees this week, starting with the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Tomorrow, he is expected to testify on the House side, before both the House Oversight Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. Only his appearance before the Oversight Committee is expected to occur in a public setting. Read more about the Cohen situation here and here.
And here comes the NEXT Spending Battle
Although the FY2019 spending situation has finally been resolved, another potentially protracted spending fight is already underway. Without an agreement to lift the statutory limits on how much the government can spend during FY2020, the federal government is looking at a very steep fiscal cliff and significant automatic cuts.
In 2011, House and Senate negotiators came up with, and the Obama Administration agreed to, a plan that was considered so potentially draconian that no one thought that parts of the plan would ever be allowed to come to fruition. The overarching goal of the plan was to cut mandatory spending. The intent was to force cuts in mandatory spending by imposing automatic cuts (or popularly called “sequesters”) to the discretionary part of the budget– both defense and non-defense– with statutory cuts placed on each part of the discretionary budget for 10 years.
The mandatory savings never materialized, and over the last eight years, sequesters have been avoided only as a result of two-year deals that raised the spending limits imposed on both defense and non-defense discretionary (“NDD”) programs. The last deal that lifted the cap applied to FY2018 and FY2019.
All of this means that, for FY2020, without an agreement that lifts the statutory limit on discretionary programs, we are facing a mandatory cut of $126 billion below FY2019 levels. As a result of the 2011 agreement, discretionary defense programs would be subject to a cut of $71 billion while the domestic agencies and programs funded through discretionary funds– such as NIH and NSF– would be forced to deal with a cut of $55 billion in FY2020. An agreement must also be reached for FY2021 in order to prevent similar automatic cuts.
Advocacy groups have mobilized to draw Congressional attention to the serious problems surrounding maintaining current spending caps. Congressional discussions have begun and the situation will take months to resolve.
Spending Bill Clears House, Ready To Be Signed
Following the Senate’s lead, the House cleared last night H.J. Res. 31, the measure that would keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year (read the explanatory statement for the legislation here). The House vote was 300 – 128.
As noted yesterday, after President Trump signs the measure later this morning, he is expected to declare a national emergency in an attempt to find additional sources of funding for a wall along the Southern border. Multiple court challenges are expected to such a move.
Funding Bill Includes Increases
An initial review of the conference report shows that it contains increases for a number of agencies and accounts of interest to UW.
For example, the bill would fund NSF at $8.075 billion, an increase of $308 million above the FY2018 level. Wtihin NSF, the bill would fund:
- Research and Related Activities at $6.52 billion
- Education and Human Resources at $910 million
- Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction at $295.7 million
With respect to NASA, the bill would appropriate $6.91 billion to the Science Mission Directorate while it would support the Space Technology Directorate at $926.9 million. The Aeronautics Directorate would receive $725 million under this bill.
We will provide additional updates.