Senate Appropriators Propose FY20 Budget Levels Ahead of Negotiations

ANCOR is sharing this article by Politico Pro because it is important for our members to be aware of budget negotiations that can affect Medicaid and other important programs that impact disability supports.

As written by Politico Pro:

“Senate GOP appropriators this morning advanced their funding levels for fiscal 2020 spending bills along partisan lines, setting up what could be difficult negotiations with the Democratic-led House as a deadline looms at the end of the month for Congress to act or face a shutdown.

The levels for each Senate subcommittee, disclosed for the first time, are the culmination of 11th-hour haggling over controversial policy language, funding for domestic programs and President Donald Trump’s border wall.

Spending leaders adopted the caps, known as 302(b) allocations, in a 16-15 vote in which every Republican senator backed the proposed spending levels and every Democratic senator opposed them. The top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., proposed an alternative plan including a boost for domestic spending that was rejected.

[…]

Appropriators have had more than five weeks to finalize the numbers since the two-year budget deal, H.R. 3877 (116), was enacted.

The full set of Senate spending levels, including funding for the Overseas Contingency Operations, the 2020 census and CHIMPs:

— Agriculture-FDA: $23.1 billion

— Financial Services: $24.2 billion

— Commerce-Justice-Science: $78.9 billion

— Defense: $693 billion

— Labor-HHS-Education: $187.7 billion [emphasis added by ANCOR]

— Homeland Security: $53.4 billion

— Energy-Water: $48.9 billion

— Interior-Environment: $35.8 billion

— State-Foreign Operations: $55 billion

— Transportation-HUD: $74.3 billion

— Military Construction-VA: $105.5 billion

— Legislative Branch: $5.1 billion

The allocations were still in flux as of Tuesday night after spending negotiations went off the rails earlier this week. Republican appropriators have accused Democrats of violating an agreement to avoid so-called poison pills in spending bills, while Democrats have argued that the GOP‘s plan to fund Trump’s wall shortchanges the bulk of non-defense programs.

[…]

Federal funding runs out at the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. Lawmakers in both chambers are eyeing a stopgap spending fix that would extend current funding levels through mid-November or early December, buying more time for negotiations.”

Additionally, Politico Pro has shared that “Senate spending leaders haven’t rescheduled subcommittee markups for the Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations measures, which were sidelined earlier this week over abortion-related amendments.”