FY19 Appropriations Update

Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch

The House and Senate passed the $147.5B FY19 Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch appropriations minibus conference agreement this week and sent the measure to the President for his signature.

The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 92 to 5. The five no votes were from Flake (R-AZ), Gillibrand (D-NY), Markey (D-MA), Paul (R-KY), and Warren (D-MA). The House followed and passed it on Thursday by a vote of 377 to 20 (two Democrats and 18 Republicans voted no). This is the first time in 10 years that Congress managed to pass three spending bills on time.

The spending package provided $98.1B for the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill (a 5.8% increase over FY18), $44.6B for the Energy & Water bill (a 3.2% increase over FY18), and $4.8B for the Legislative Branch bill (a 2.1% increase over FY18). It also included an additional $1.25B to cover an immediate funding shortfall for the Veterans Choice Program. The bill did not include any partisan policy riders that had been included in the House versions of the bills.

Conference Report

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Conference%20Report%20to%20accompany%20H.R.%205895.pdf

Joint Explanatory Statement

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Joint%20Explanatory%20Statement%20H.R.%205895.pdf

Defense, Labor HHS Education

House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise on the two biggest annual spending bills, paving the way for final adoption of the Defense and Labor HHS Education appropriations bills in time for the new fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

The $855B conference agreement also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal agencies that don’t get their full-year appropriations bills completed on time. The CR would extend current fiscal year funding levels for those agencies through December 7. Conferees hope to avoid a partial federal government shutdown by including the CR in the Defense minibus. The President would have to veto defense spending if he wanted to shutdown he federal government over border wall funding.

Like the Energy & Water, Military Construction-VA, Legislative Branch minibus conference agreement, this package does not include any of the partisan policy riders sought by House Republicans. While House conservatives have threatened to withhold their support for the bill on the floor, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) is confident that the measure has enough bipartisan support for passage.

The Senate may take up the conference agreement next week. The House would then consider the measure when they return from recess the week of September 24.

Conference Report Text

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/CRPT-115hrpt952.pdf 

Joint Explanatory Statement

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/Joint%20%20Statement.pdf

Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, Transportation HUD

House and Senate negotiators met this week to conference the final minibus spending package that they hope to pass before the end of this fiscal year. The $154B four-bill package includes the Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, and Transportation HUD spending bills. While they had hoped to finalize an agreement this week, negotiators could not reach agreement on several partisan policy riders. Many of these riders are in the Interior-Environment portion of the minibus. Republicans agreed to forgo their riders in the other two minibus spending packages, but had yet to do so in this minibus. Negotiators are still hopeful that they will be able to reach a deal in the coming days.

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status