After clearing the Senate yesterday by a 67-28 margin, H. R. 3877, the two-year spending deal, was signed into law earlier today by the president.
The law increases the discretionary spending levels for FY2020 and FY2021, effectively ending the last two years of potentially draconian spending cuts called for by the Budget Control Act of 2011. It also suspends the debt limit until July of 2021.
By a vote of 284 to 149, the House cleared yesterday H. R. 3877, the bipartisan package that would increase the debt limit and increase the spending levels for the next two fiscal years.
Even after an agreement was reached earlier in the week, there were some questions as to whether the President supported it. Before the House vote, he tweeted his support for the measure. In the end, less than half of the House Republicans supported the bill.
The legislation now heads over to the Senate for its consideration next week before the chamber clears out for the month of August. The House is now in recess until after Labor Day.
With the August recess scheduled to start this weekend serving as the impetus, the House will take up later today the two-year budget deal that was agreed to by the Congressional Democrats and the White House.
The agreement would, among other things, increase the debt limit as well as raise the spending caps on discretionary programs for next year and the year after. Although the two sides agreed to the deal, several members of Congress have noted that nothing is certain until the legislation is actually signed into law by the President.
The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure next week, before it goes into recess for the month of August.
Following a series of phone calls and in-person negotiations, an agreement was reached last evening that would, if signed into law, raise both the debt limit and the spending levels for next year and FY2021. Shortly after President Trump announced that a deal was agreed to, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed the announcement.
The deal addresses two different issues. First, it would increase debt limit for two years and, in theory, push the issue into 2021, after the next election cycle.
Second, the deal would also increase the spending limits for FY2020 and FY2021. Without such a deal, budget caps below the current level of spending would need to be imposed for the next two years.
As a result of the new deal, spending levels next year and the year after would increase by a total of $321 billion and $77 billion of that would partially be offset by extension of certain fees and accounting changes.
For FY2020, spending on defense programs would be increased to $738 billion, a 3.1-percent increase above the current level. Non-defense discretionary programs are slated to receive a total of $632 billion, 4.5 percent above the current level. In FY2021, defense spending would increase to $740.5 billion and spending on non-defense would go up to $634.5 billion.
While the deal has been publicly endorsed by the Trump White House and the Congressional Democrats, it must still be signed into law. With the House scheduled to go into a six-week recess starting this weekend and the Senate expected to follow suit next Friday, Congressional leadership is trying to get the measure enacted by the House Thursday, which would allow the Senate to act before its August recess.
Read more about the negotiations and the deal here, here, and here.
After completing its debate that was carried over from last week, the House adopted earlier this afternoon its second “minibus” package of spending bills by a vote of 227 to 194. The approved legislation, H.R. 3055, includes five of the 12 FY2020 spending bills: Commerce-Justice-Science; Agriculture; Interior and the Environment; Military Construction-Veterans Affairs; and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. This means that the House has now cleared a total of nine appropriations bills.