House and Senate Continue Work on FY19 Appropriations Bills

Funding for Veterans Private Health Care Delays Conference on FY19 Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch Minibus

Last week, conferees for the FY19 postponed their formal conference negotiations on the minibus package (H.R. 5895) that includes the FY19 Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch spending bills. Conferees gave different reasons for the postponement. House Republicans said it was due to scheduling conflicts, but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) said the meeting was scuttled because there is more work to be done on funding for veterans’ health care (i.e. how to pay for a shortfall in the Veterans Choice Program).

Last month, the President signed into law a bill that consolidated the Veterans Choice program with several other existing community care programs. Prior to this consolidation, the Choice program was funded through mandatory spending (outside of the spending caps). After the consolidation, the consolidated programs are now designated as discretionary spending, and therefore subject to the annual budget caps. Since then, appropriators have been trying to figure out how to account for the additional spending needs of the program as the shift came after the FY19 budget caps were agreed upon.

The White House sent a letter to Congress this week cautioning lawmakers against raising the spending caps to accommodate shifts in funding for the Veterans Choice Program. Many Democrats and some Senate Republicans (including Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-AL) are insisting that $1.1B be spent beyond the agreed upon FY19 spending caps. The White House accused Democrats of using veterans funding as a ploy to raise the spending caps and demanded Congress fit the $1.1B additional needed in FY19 within the nondefense spending cap. House Budget Committee Chairman Steve Womack (R-AR) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Michael Enzi (R-WY) sent a letter to Appropriators this week insisting that funding for these programs be kept within the topline $597B nondefense spending cap for FY19.

If the conflict isn’t resolved, it could lead to a stop-gap funding bill (continuing resolution) in September.

House Passed FY19 Interior-Environment and Financial Services Minibus

The House passed the FY19 Interior-Environment and Financial Services appropriations minibus on the House Floor this week by a vote of 217-199. The House has now passed six of its 12 annual spending bills.

Fifteen Republicans and all Democrats voted against the bill. Democrats opposed the package mostly because of Republican policy riders including those that would attempt to roll back environmental regulations. Democrats also voted against the bill because of procedural concerns, noting that the rule governing consideration of the measure allowed only a single hour for general debate on both bills combined. Republicans defended the process stating that it allowed for 87 amendments to be considered.

The White House issued a statement of administration policy expressing support for many of the measure’s provisions, but disagreed with funding levels for specific programs.

White House Statement of Administration Policy

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/saphr6147h_20180718.pdf

House Appropriations Subcommittee Marks Up FY19 Homeland Security Bill

The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its $51.4B FY19 spending bill this week. This is an increase of $3.7B above the FY18 enacted level. The Senate FY19 Homeland Security spending bill provides $48.3B in funding, $3.1B less than the House bill. This is a large discrepancy that will have to be resolved in House-Senate conference talks.

The bill included $5B for the President’s proposed border wall more than three times the $1.6B the President requested in his FY19 budget request. The Senate allocated $1.6B for the wall in their bill. The President recently asked the GOP to appropriate $5B. House Appropriators would make the $5B available through FY23. It would provide for over 200 miles of new physical barrier construction.

The full committee will mark up the bill on Wednesday, July 25.

House FY19 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill Text

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP15/20180719/108583/BILLS-115-SC-AP-FY2019-HSecurity-HomelandBill.pdf

House FY19 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill Summary

https://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=395381

Senate to Consider FY19 Agriculture, Financial Services, Interior-Environment, and Transportation-HUD Minibus Spending Bill Next Week

The Senate is considering taking up the House-passed FY19 Interior-Environment and Financial Services spending package on the floor next week and adding two more bills: Agriculture and Transportation-HUD.

Meanwhile, the White House sent two letters to Senate Appropriators this week outlining their concerns with the FY19 Labor HHS Education and Defense spending bills.

White House Letter to Senate Appropriators re: FY19 Labor HHS Education Bill

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Shelby_LHHS_Letter.pdf

White House Letter to Senate Appropriators re: FY19 Defense Bill

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Shelby_DOD_Letter_July162018.pdf

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status