Update on FY18 Appropriations, Emergency Funding for Hurricane Harvey, and the Debt Ceiling

Before the August recess, the House passed a four-bill “securitybus” that included the FY18 Defense, Energy & Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bills. The House will consider an eight-bill appropriations “minibus” when they return next week and roll the four-bill securitybus into it before final passage. Over 900 amendments have been filed for the eight-bill minibus: https://rules.house.gov/bill/115/hr-3354. The House Rules Committee will meet on September 5 at 4:00 PM to determine which amendments will be made in order for consideration on the House floor. The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed six of their FY18 spending bills and is scheduled to mark up its FY18 Labor HHS Education and State Foreign Operations spending bills in subcommittee on September 6 and full committee on September 7.

Funding for FY2017 ends on September 30 leaving Congress four short weeks to pass the FY18 spending bills or risk a government shutdown. There has been discussion this week of combining a short-term (through December?) FY18 continuing resolution (CR) with emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey and possibly lifting the debt ceiling. The President may attach his disaster aid request to a measure increasing the debt limit. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that conservatives could support attaching some Harvey aid to a CR but that the emergency aid bill should not be part of a vehicle to raise the debt ceiling. Meadows said that it would send the wrong message to add spending to a bill that is also increasing the debt ceiling. The caucus has been pushing for a debt ceiling package that includes spending reforms.

Emergency funding for Harvey may be complicated by the fight four years ago over funding for Superstorm Sandy. Some conservative Republicans voted against that emergency funding bill because of concerns that the funding included unrelated “pork,” while others pushed amendments that would have required offsetting part of the cost of the disaster aid with cuts to other discretionary programs. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney authored the offset amendment when he was a member of Congress. Tom Bossert, White House Homeland Security Advisor, said on Thursday that they want a clean supplemental that is focused on funding “obvious needs” like repairing a highway. He stressed that Harvey funding should not be part of a debate about the debt ceiling. While Texas Governor Greg Abbott estimates that the state might need $100 billion in federal aid, the Administration is still tabulating how much it will request from Congress.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, officials from FEMA and DHS, members of the Texas delegation, and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) held a conference call yesterday to discuss an emergency funding package for Texas. The President is expected to request an initial $5.95B in emergency relief – $5.5B for FEMA and $450M for the Small Business Administration. Whatever Congress appropriates for Hurricane Harvey relief might impact the timeframe with which Congress needs to lift the debt ceiling. And because the extent of the damage is not known yet, aid is likely to come in installments.

Status of FY18 Appropriations Spending Bills