The House Rules Committee released the bill text and report language for an eight-bill appropriations minibus this week. Amendments are due by next Friday 8/25 at 10:00 am. The eight bills included in the minibus are: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations, and Transportation-HUD.
The Rules Committee will meet the week of September 4th to grant a rule to provide a structured amendment process for floor consideration of the minibus. The rule will not make in order amendments that have offsets or transfers between bills (e.g. members cannot transfer funds from an account in the Agriculture division to an account in the Interior division).
The notice from the Rules Committee also mentioned that they struck a provision from the FY18 Financial Services Appropriations bill that would ensure Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are eligible to be employed by the federal government.
The House Rules Committee also plans to use a self-executing rule to roll the text of the four appropriations bills passed in July (Defense, Energy & Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs) into the eight-bill minibus creating a 12 bill omnibus for final vote.
While this movement by the House Rules Committee is a good indication that they have the 218 votes needed for passage on the floor, the omnibus isn’t expected to go far in the Senate where 60 votes are needed. The Senate Appropriations Committee has marked up and approved six of its 12 annual spending bills, but it is unclear if any of these bills will see floor time in September. A continuing resolution (CR) is likely come September 30.
Eight-Bill Minibus Bill Text:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-115hr3354rh/pdf/BILLS-115hr3354rh.pdf
Eight-Bill Minibus Report Language:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-115hrpt238/pdf/CRPT-115hrpt238.pdf
Status of FY18 Appropriations Spending Bills
| Subcommittee | House Action | Senate Action |
| Agriculture | Subcommittee: June 28
Full Committee: July 12 |
Subcommittee: July 19
Full Committee: July 20 |
| Commerce Justice Science | Subcommittee: June 29
Full Committee: July 13 |
Subcommittee: July 25
Full Committee: July 27 |
| Defense | Subcommittee: June 26
Full Committee: June 29 Floor: July 27 |
|
| Energy & Water | Subcommittee: June 28
Full Committee: July 12 Floor: July 27 |
Subcommittee: July 19
Full Committee: July 20 |
| Financial Services | Subcommittee: June 29
Full Committee: July 13 |
|
| Homeland Security | Subcommittee: July 12
Full Committee: July 18 |
|
| Interior | Subcommittee: July 12
Full Committee: July 18 |
|
| Labor HHS | Subcommittee: July 13
Full Committee: July 19 |
|
| Legislative Branch | Full Committee: June 29
Floor: July 27 |
Full Committee: July 27 |
| MilCon-VA | Subcommittee: June 12
Full Committee: June 15 Floor: July 27 |
Subcommittee: July 12
Full Committee: July 13 |
| State Foreign Ops | Subcommittee: July 13
Full Committee: July 19 |
|
| Transportation HUD | Subcommittee: July 11
Full Committee: July 17 |
Subcommittee: July 25
Full Committee: July 27 |