Skip to content
News and updates

News and updates

Agreement Reached on Labor-Health-Education and Defense Package

Posted on

House and Senate conferees yesterday officially agreed to a massive spending package for FY2019 that combines the two biggest annual appropriations bills, the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense measures.  The explanatory statement for the conference report is available here.  The text of the conference report is also available on-line here.

The Senate could take up the $855-billion package, which represents approximately 65 percent of all discretionary spending for FY2019, next week with the House following suit the following week.  The current plan is to add a short-term continuing resolution to this bill that would fund other agencies and programs whose spending bills haven’t been passed by the October 1 deadline through December 7.

Here are some of the details with respect to the Labor-HHS-Education component of the bill:

Biomedical and health

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH):  $39.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion over current level
  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):  $7.16 billion, an increase of $146.8 million
  • Nursing programs:  level-funded at $249.5 million

Student aid and higher education

  • Pell Grant:  maximum grant of $6,195 ($100 increase)
  • Title VI international programs:  level-funded at $72.6 million
  • Federal Work-Study:  level-funded at $1.13 billion
  • SEOG:  level-funded at $840 million
  • TRIO:  $1.06 billion, an increase of $50 million
  • GEAR UP:  $360 million, an increase of $10 million

A summary of the Labor-HHS-Education part of the agreement is available here.

Office of Federal Relations will provide additional details, including those about the defense part of the bill, throughout the day.

First FY2019 Spending Bills Ready for Enactment

Posted on

The House has passed the conference report for the first set of FY2019 appropriations bills– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– by a vote of 377 to 20.  The Senate approved the measure yesterday.  The legislative package is now ready for the president’s signature.

First CR to Last Through Dec. 7

Posted on

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) said today that the first continuing resolution (CR) will last through December 7 and that it will be attached to the conference report for the Labor-HHS and Defense spending bills currently being drafted by House and Senate negotiators.  A CR will be needed for programs and agencies not funded by the spending bills signed into law before October 1.  The short-term CR is intended to create more time for Congress to address the remaining appropriations measures.

It remains to be seen just exactly how many appropriations bills will be enacted by the October 1 deadline.

First Spending Bills to be Cleared by Friday?

Posted on

The conference report for the package that contains the first three appropriations bills of FY2019– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– was quickly adopted by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 92 to 5.  An agreement between the House and Senate negotiators was reached on it earlier this week.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later today and is expected to clear it by Friday, clearing it for the President’s signature.  As noted above, these three bills, if signed into law, would represent the first spending bills approved for FY2019, which starts on Oct 1.

On a related note, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to formally meet today on two other sets of spending bills.  The first combines the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Defense bills and second pulls together the Interior, Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services bills.

Details of Energy and Water Spending Bill Available

Posted on

Details contained in the conference report for the FY2019 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill are now available.

As noted previously, the bill would support the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science at approximately $6.59 billion.  The office is currently funded at $6.26 billion and the Trump Administration requested $5.39 billion.  If passed and signed into law, the measure would fund a number of programs of interest housed at the Office of Science in the following manner:

  • Advanced Scientific Computing Research– $935.5 million ($810.0 million in FY2018 and $899.0 million requested from Administration)
  • Basic Energy Sciences– $2.17 billion (FY2018: $2.09 billion; request: $1.85 billion)
  • Biological and Environmental Research– $705.0 million (FY2018: $673.0 million; request: $500.0 million)
  • Fusion– $564.0 million, including $432.0 million for research and $132.0 million for ITER (FY2018:  $410.0 million for research and $122.0 for ITER; request:  $265 million for research and $75 million for ITER)
  • High Energy Physics– $980.0 million (FY2018:  $908.0 million; request:  $770.0 million)
  • Nuclear Physics– $690.0 million (FY2018:  $684.0 million; request:  $600.0 million)

The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account would be funded at $2.38 billion under this bill.  It is currently funded at $2.32 billion and the Administration requested $695 million for FY2019.

The conference report is available here.