Congress is Back to Black… Ink for FY20 Budgeting

ANCOR is sharing two articles by Politico Pro because the Labor-HHS bill it discusses would fund Medicaid, which funds the majority of disability supports in the United States.

As written by Politico Pro:

“The Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up its Labor-HHS-Education spending bill in subcommittee on Sept. 10, according to an internal congressional notice shared with POLITICO.

Senate spending leaders have yet to introduce any of their 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2020, but the panel is expected to mark up several of them next week.

Lawmakers will have just 13 working days after returning from August recess to pass measures that provide updated funding or extend current levels for federal agencies to prevent another government shutdown at month’s end.

[…]

The House passed a nearly $1 trillion spending package, H.R. 2740 (116), in June that includes the bulk of federal funding for non-defense programs. But House spending leaders will have to revise their fiscal 2020 bills since President Donald Trump signed a two-year budget deal last month, H.R. 3877 (116), that includes $15 billion less for non-defense programs than what House leaders wanted to provide.”

Meanwhile, in addition to the FY20 budget, the House is also concerned about averting a shutdown…

“The House will return to Washington next week with plans to swiftly pass a bill to keep the government open past Sept. 30, marking the first step to avert yet another shutdown.

The House will take up the stopgap funding measure the second week they return from the August recess, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced in a letter to the caucus on Thursday.

[…]

But it’s unclear if Senate Republicans are willing to accept a stopgap measure, which would not include a single additional dollar for President Donald Trump’s border wall, which is likely to be the administration’s top priority in the funding talks.

Under the House’s timeframe, the Senate would have roughly two weeks to take up the bill or float its own alternative to avert what would be the third shutdown under President Trump.”