Congress Passes Budget Deal; Appropriations Committee Begins Work on Funding Levels for Fiscal Year 2016 

In his last week in office, former House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) managed to avert another fiscal crisis. Modeled after the bill that was negotiated by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in 2013, the new agreement (HR 1314) raises the Budget Control Act spending caps for two years and extends the government’s borrowing authority through the 2016 Presidential election. The bill also raises the debt ceiling through March 15, 2017 and includes provisions to address Medicare Part B premiums and the solvency of the Social Security Disability Trust Fund. All of the additional spending is offset by a one-year extension of the existing two percent payment cut to Medicare providers (similar to the Ryan-Murray deal), sales of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, changes in crop insurance programs, and structural changes to Medicare and Social Security. 

Although it is too soon to tell how this deal will affect funding for the federal science agencies, the outlook for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) is good. The Ryan-Murray agreement raised the NDD cap by $22.4 billion and ultimately led to a $760 million increase for NIH. HR 1314 boosts the cap by slightly more ($25 billion), suggesting a similar or greater increase for NIH is possible. In addition, House Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) and his Senate counterpart, Roy Blunt (R-MO), proposed large increases for NIH in draft bills approved in June. House Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee Chairman John Culberson (R-TX) also indicated he would like to provide more money for NSF if the budget caps are raised. Many groups in the discretionary spending community supported the budget deal, including ASPET.

Negotiations are now underway between the House and Senate Appropriations Committee leadership on the revised spending limits known as 302b allocations for each subcommittee. Once the new 302b allocations are adopted, final spending levels will be determined for each agency. It is expected that the 12 individual spending bills will be combined into an omnibus package. It is unclear when the omnibus bill will be finalized, but appropriators are working toward completing work before the current “continuing resolution” expires on December 11th. In addition to finalizing the spending levels for each agency, members of Congress will need to reach an agreement on a number of controversial policy riders that could be included in the final package. White House officials warned that President Obama will veto an omnibus appropriations bill if it includes provisions to restrict funding for Planned Parenthood, block new environmental regulations, or other policies he opposes. With the 302(b) allocations expected by the end of the week, the appropriations timeline is taking shape. Here's a rundown of what we may see over the next 5 weeks: 

• End of week: House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairs hand down 302(b) allocations to subcommittee chairs.
• By Thanksgiving: House and Senate subcommittees work in concert to draft bills to new allocations and submit to the full committees.  
• Before December: House and Senate full committees hash our remaining details (most of which will be riders) and compile omnibus spending package.
• First week in December: Omnibus package comes to floor to allow time for consideration and passage before short-term CR expires December 11th. 

ASPET continues to monitor this space and will provide updates as they become available.

Last updated: November 9, 2015