Legislative Activity Senate Democrats Continue to Push for a Budget Deal In the coming weeks, Senate Democrats will implement a strategy intended to force Republicans into a budget deal. Senate Democratic leadership does not want to rely on President Obama’s vetoes of appropriations bills to force Republicans into negotiations, and will likely prevent any appropriations … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Joins House in Appropriations Effort Senate Appropriators begin work on their FY 2016 spending bills this week, with subcommittee markups scheduled Tuesday for the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Energy-Water appropriations bills. Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) has not publicly revealed how he apportions the mandated topline discretionary funding level of $1.07 trillion … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Democrats Continue to Push for a Budget Deal The President and Democrats in the House and Senate continue to pressure Republicans for a budget deal to replace the sequester’s strict spending limits. Most House Democrats voted against the two sequester-level appropriations bills that were recently considered on the House floor, President Obama has … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY Appropriators Ready Omnibus For Action Closely guarding any progress, House and Senate Appropriations staff worked over the holiday recess to reconcile their respective versions of FY 2014 spending bills in order to incorporate them into a comprehensive omnibus package. Early this week, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ranking Member Richard Shelby … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Appropriations Committee Membership. On Thursday, June 20, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced that Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has joined the committee to fill the seat held by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In a statement released last week, the Chairwoman expressed her confidence in the value Sen. Coons … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Appropriations Action Last week the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation/Housing and Urban Development approved its spending bill for FY 2014. The bill provides $44.1 billion ($13.9 billion less than the President requested) and reflects the automatic spending cuts required under sequestration. Although the bill largely protects core funding for surface transportation programs … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget and Appropriations The House approved its version of FY 2014 Homeland Security appropriations on June 6, but the Senate is just beginning the appropriations process. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has announced that the Homeland Security Subcommittee 302(b) allocation for FY 2014 will be $39.1 billion (plus $227 billion for … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Appropriations Action Last week the House Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2014 Defense and Agriculture spending bills. The Defense bill will likely be the first to reach the House floor, possibly this week. Subcommittee action continues this week with the Energy and Water and Transportation-Housing bills both scheduled for markups (see This … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Budget and Appropriations Last Thursday, June 6 the House approved the FY 2014 Homeland Security appropriations bill by a vote of 245-182, which provides $38.9 billion in discretionary funding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Both Republican and Democrat amendments successfully transferred funds from the Office of the Undersecretary for Management … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Appropriations Action On Friday, May 31, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) released the House legislative agenda for June which includes consideration of four FY 2014 appropriations bills: Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA); Homeland Security; Defense; and Agriculture. The MilCon-VA (H.R. 2216) and Homeland Security (H.R. 2217) bills are both on the House … Continue Reading
