House Passes FY18 Omnibus Appropriations Bill

The House passed the 2,232-page $1.3T FY2018 omnibus appropriations bill today by a vote of 256 to 167 (90 Republicans, many of whom are conservatives, and 77 Democrats voted against passage). The bill then went to the Senate for consideration. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) moved to cut off debate this evening after failing to get the consent of all 100 senators to waive procedural hurdles and move quickly to final passage. This means that the Senate may have to wait until cloture ripens at 1 am on Saturday to vote on cloture. This is one hour after the current FY18 continuing resolution (CR) expires. If cloture is invoked, a 30-hour clock begins, and absent a time agreement, a vote on final passage could occur as late as 8 am Sunday morning. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) confirmed this evening that several senators are objecting to the bill, but said he’s optimistic that the Senate will get it done. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also said he’s confident the bill will pass by a comfortable margin in the Senate. But in the interim, the government could briefly shutdown unless another CR is passed. The President has indicated that he will sign the omnibus spending bill.

In addition to including funding for the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, the omnibus includes extensions of the FAA authorization and Airport and Airway Trust Fund (through September 30, 2018), the National Flood Insurance Program (through July 31, 2018, a deadline which decouples it from the federal funding cycle), the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (through September 30, 2018), the Trade Act of 1974 (through December 31, 2020), redaction authority concerning sensitive security information in the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (through December 31, 2027), the Brownfields Law, the Conrad 30 Waiver program (through September 30, 2018), EB-5 Regional Center Program (through September 30, 2018), E-Verify authorization (through September 30, 2018), Generalized System of Preferences, authority of the Judicial Conference to redact personal and sensitive information from the financial disclosure report of a judge or judicial employee if it finds that revealing the information could endanger that individual or a family member of that individual, the FCC, the Special Immigrant Religious Workers Program (through September 30, 2018), and pass through status from 3 to 5 years for certain drugs which not enough data has been collected to allow the drug to be priced properly by Medicare.

The omnibus also includes a technical correction to remove state match requirements for Abstinence Education, continues the EPA’s exemption for low-level livestock emissions, establishes a national criminal history background check system and criminal history review program for organizations that serve children, reforms forest management, clarifies the treatment of minor league baseball players under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime rules, reauthorizes the Secure Rural Schools payments for two years, directs the SEC to change certain requirements relating to the capital structure of business development companies, and includes a “fire borrowing fix” and a prohibition on employers keeping tips received by employees.

And the bill includes the CLOUD Act, the TARGET Act, the Taylor Force Act, legislation to strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the Keep Young Athletes Safe Act, Kevin and Avonte’s Law, legislation to relocate broadcaster spectrum, tax technical corrections, revenue provisions (fixing the “grain glitch” and enhancing the low-income housing credit), and legislation to provide local law enforcement, school personnel and students with the tools they need to proactively prevent a threat.

	FY17 Enacted	FY18 Omnibus	Increase/(Decrease) Over FY17	Inc/(Dec) % Over FY17
Agriculture	$20.877B	$23.259B	$2.382B	11.4%
Commerce, Justice, Science	$56.555B	$59.600B	$3.045B	5.4%
Defense	$516.115B	$589.452B	$73.337B	14.2%
Defense OCO	$82.349B	$65.166B	($17.183B)	(20.9%)
Energy & Water	$37.771B	$43.200B	$5.429B	14.4%
Financial Services	$21.515B	$23.423B	$1.908B	8.9%
Homeland Security	$42.408B	$47.723B	$5.315B	12.5%
Homeland OCO	$0.163B	$0.163B	No Change	N/A
Homeland Disaster Relief	$6.713B	$7.366B	$0.653B	9.7%
Interior	$32.280B	$35.252B	$2.972B	9.2%
Labor HHS Education	$161.025B	$177.100B	$16.075B	10%
Labor Program Integrity	$1.960B	$1.896B	($0.064B)	(3.5%)
Legislative Branch	$4.440B	$4.700B	$0.260B	5.9%
MilCon/Veterans Affairs	$82.376B	$91.991B	$9.615B	11.7%
MilCon/VA OCO	$0.420B	$0.750B	$0.330B	78.6%
State Foreign Ops	$36.586B	$42.000B	$5.414B	14.8%
State/FO OCO	$20.785B	$12.018B	($8.767B)	(42.2%)
Transportation HUD	$57.651BB	$70.300B	$12.649B	21.9%
THUD Disaster Relief	$1.416B	$0B	($1.416B)	(100%)