FY 2020 Appropriations Starting

It’s a been a while.

In any event, it’s a big week. The House Appropriations Committee begins work on FY 2020 appropriations bills even though top-line numbers haven’t entirely been decided in the Democratic Caucus, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) releases its revised baseline on this coming Thursday, May 2.

This week’s House Appropriations Committee markup schedule is

• FY2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Tue, 04/30/2019 – 4:00pm. Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
• FY2020 Legislative Branch Subcommittee. Wed, 05/01/2019 – 1:00pm. Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
• FY2020 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Wed, 05/01/2019 – 3:00pm. Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

Over in the Senate, the Appropriations Committee will hold these hearings:

Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security	05/02/19 10:00AM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for Department of Labor	05/02/19 10:00AM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission	05/01/19 02:30PM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for NASA	05/01/19 02:30PM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for the Navy and Marine Corps	05/01/19 10:00AM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for the Indian Health Service	05/01/19 09:30AM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 and FY2021 Budget Request for the VA	04/30/19 02:30PM
Subcommittee Hearing: Review of the FY2020 Budget Request for USAID	04/30/19 02:30PM

Also, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) said yesterday that his committee will not work on their appropriations bills until there is a deal in place on the caps. He remarked that “[t]hat’s what we’d like to do because we’d have more certainty.”

Of course, where the caps are ultimately set is a major stumbling block in enacting FY 2020 appropriations. At present, the caps for defense funding would be $576 billion (without uncapped Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding) and non-defense $542 billion (without OCO, Disaster relief, and other adjustments). House Democrats are split on how much to raise the caps, but House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY) seems to be willing to work with the cap adjustments in the “Investing for the People Act of 2019” (H.R. 2021) of $664 billion for defense (plus $69 billion for defense OCO for a total of $733 billion) and $631 billion for non-defense (plus add ons pushing the cap up to $662 billion.) Consequently, House appropriations bills will likely meet those top lines as reported out of committee.

The Senate Budget Committee, however, opted to remain with the current cap levels for FY 2020 with the hopes that a deal will soon be reached for both FY 2020 and FY 2021. Their budget resolution, S.Con.Res.12, would keep the FY 2020 caps of $576 billion for defense and $542 for non-defense.

There’s still a supplemental appropriations bill floating that Congress hasn’t passed, which seems to be held up on whether Puerto Rico would receive more funding to recover from Hurricane Maria. However, the White House opposes more funds, and Democrats are insisting on it. Hence, an impasse even though a number of the states waiting on relief via supplemental appropriations for FY 2019 include states Trump will need to carry in 2020, including Florida, Georgia, and Iowa.