FY17 Budget and Appropriations
House
House Republicans missed the statutory deadline today to adopt an FY17 budget resolution. However, the Appropriations Committee is moving forward with their bills marking up the FY17 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill in full committee and the FY17 Energy and Water and Agriculture spending bills in subcommittee this week.
While House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) said last month that spending bills would not be considered on the House floor without a budget in place, he left the door open to that possibility at a press conference this week. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) would like to bring bills to the floor before May 15 because of the shortened year. And he wants to complete committee action on all 12 bills by late June and enact them before the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1.
Rogers did get some pushback from Democrats on the committee for moving forward on bills without providing allocations, or 302(b)s for all of the subcommittees. The committee voted 30 to 20 to adopt an “interim” allocation for the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill, but left allocations for the other 11 bills in the dark. Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY) expressed concern about proceeding with bills without knowing how much money would be left over for the remaining spending bills.
Military Construction-Veterans Affairs
The House Appropriations full committee marked up the FY17 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilConVA) bill this week and passed it out of committee by voice vote. The committee allocates $81.47B in discretionary budget authority for the bill, along with $172M in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. The bill includes additional funding to address management problems and health care shortages, and to increase the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of its services to veterans.
Three amendments were adopted during full committee consideration of the bill. The first was a manager’s amendment from Rep. Dent (R-PA). The second was an amendment offered by Rep. Rooney (R-FL) prohibiting funding for the next phase of construction of a Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex Consolidation in Croughton, England unless it is authorized in the FY17 NDAA. And the last amendment was from Chairman Rogers (R-KY) adding bill language to clarify that certain existing unobligated funding within the Departments of State and Health and Human Services shall be available to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the Zika crisis, both domestically and internationally. The amendment was adopted on a vote of 30-20.
The bill text can be found at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-114hr-sc-ap-fy2017-milcon-subcommitteedraft.pdf
Draft report language can be found at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hrpt-114-hr-fy2017-milcon.pdf
And a summary of the bill can be found at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394474
Agriculture
The House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee approved a $21.3B FY17 spending bill by voice vote this week. The bill will be considered in full committee next Tuesday. The panel made no changes to the bill, which is $451M below the enacted FY16 level and $281M below the President’s FY17 budget request.
The subcommittee’s draft bill text can be found at:
Energy and Water
The House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee approved its $37.4B FY17 spending bill on Wednesday by voice vote. The bill is $259M above FY16 enacted levels and $168M above what the President requested for FY!7.
The subcommittee’s draft bill text can be found at:
House Rules Committee Hearing on Proposed Rule XXI Changes
Meanwhile, the House Rules Committee members also met this week to consider changes to House Rule XXI that would allow entitlement programs to be cut as part of the appropriations process, instead of through separate legislation. Rule XXI prohibits spending bills from including changes to existing law or sending money to unauthorized programs. The proposed changes could provide the guarantee that conservatives are seeking to ensure that spending cuts would be enacted in exchange for their acceptance of a higher overall discretionary budget limit. This hearing was the first in a series of hearings regarding House process that Republicans are undertaking as part of a comprehensive review that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) promised upon becoming Speaker. Critics of the proposed changes charge that Republicans are trying to change the House rules in order to enact priorities that are too politically unpopular to pass through regular order.
Senate
On the Senate side, Appropriators got an earlier than usual start on their FY17 spending bills. On a 29 to 1 vote, the committee adopted its 302(b) spending allocations, which allows the 12 subcommittees to begin writing their individual spending bills. The numbers reflect the $1.07T discretionary spending level agreed to in last year’s budget agreement. The one “no” vote came from Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS). The subcommittee allocations are as follows:
Agriculture: $21.2B
Commerce-Justice-Science: $56.3B
Defense: $515.9B (OCO: $56.8B)
Energy and Water: $37.5B
Financial Services: $22.4B
Homeland Security: $41.2B
Interior-Environment: $32B
Labor-HHS-Education: $161.9B
Legislative Branch: $4.4B
Military Construction-Veterans Affairs: $83B
State-Foreign Operations: $37.2B (OCO: $14.9B)
Transportation-HUD: $56.5B
There are some winners and losers based on these allocations. The MilCon-VA bill received the biggest funding boost over FY16 levels with a $3B increase, while the Transportation-HUD bill was cut by about $1B as was Financial Services. DOD is about $2B higher this year, while State Foreign Operations was cut by more than $800M and Agriculture lost about $500M.
Energy and Water
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its FY17 Energy and Water spending bill out of subcommittee and full committee this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then filed cloture on the bill setting it up for consideration on the Senate floor early next week. The Senate will use a House-passed FY16 appropriations bill (HR 2028) as a legislative vehicle for the measure. The bill provides $37.5B for the Energy Department and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is $355M over current year funding levels and $261M above the President’s FY17 budget request. The bill includes $6B for the Army Corps of Engineers, $12.9B for nuclear security programs, and $1.14B for the Bureau of Reclamation. The bill was approved without amendment and is free of controversial riders, but could face some of these as amendments when it is considered on the floor.
Military Construction-Veterans Affairs
The Senate Appropriations Committee also passed its $83B FY17 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilConVA) bill out of subcommittee and full committee. This is a $14.7B increase over current year funding.
Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said that she expects to markup the Transportation-HUD appropriations bills next week
| Subcommittee | House | Senate |
| Agriculture | Subcommittee: April 13
Full Committee: April 19 |
|
| Commerce-Justice-Science | Subcommittee: April 19
Full Committee: April 21 |
|
| Defense | ||
| Energy & Water | Subcommittee: April 13
Full Committee: April 19 |
Subcommittee: April 13
Full Committee: April 14 |
| Financial Services | ||
| Homeland Security | ||
| Interior | ||
| Labor HHS Education | ||
| Legislative Branch | Subcommittee: April 20 | |
| Military Construction – Veterans Affairs | Subcommittee: March 23
Full Committee: April 13 |
Subcommittee: April 13
Full Committee: April 14 |
| State Foreign Operations | ||
| Transportation HUD | Subcommittee: April 19
Full Committee: April 21 |