The House and Senate made some progress last week on appropriations legislation for the coming fiscal year despite continued uncertainty over ultimate spending levels that should have been established more than a month ago in a congressional budget resolution.
The House and Senate made some progress last week on appropriations legislation for the coming fiscal year despite continued uncertainty over ultimate spending levels that should have been established more than a month ago in a congressional budget resolution.
This is somewhat analogous to working on a complex construction project while the architects remain deadlocked over the blueprint. It’s a poor way to deal with the federal budget, particularly as the annual deficit starts rising again and is projected to approach $1 trillion near the end of the next presidential term.
Lack of a budget resolution can be traced to disagreements among House Republicans over whether to ignore a bipartisan agreement reached last fall on overall spending levels. Republicans leaders know that abandoning the deal would torpedo their hopes for the orderly approval of the 12 appropriations bills needed for Fiscal 2017.
The House approved its first 2017 appropriations bill last week, with $81.6 billion for Veterans Affairs and military construction. But it did so only after a chaotic controversy over an anti-discrimination amendment. In addition, President Obama has threatened a veto over “problematic ideological provisions.”
The Senate last week passed its $83 billion VA/Military Construction legislation as well as $56.5 billion for HUD and Transportation on strongly bipartisan votes. Earlier this month the Senate passed its Energy/Water spending bill.
