Congress Sends First Appropriations Package to President, Rushes to Avert Shutdown

Congress sent the first bipartisan spending package, including the Energy-Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2019, to the President on September 13. The Senate passed the $147.5 billion “minibus” with a 92-5 vote on September 12, after which the House of Representatives approved the legislation by a vote of 377-20. The Conference Committee Report accompanying the spending package directs $44.6 billion (+3 percent) to the Energy and Water accounts, which include the Department of Energy Office of Science ($6.6 billion, +325 million). The bill provides the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), targeted for elimination by President Trump, with $366 million (+$13 million). Several contentious policy riders were dropped from the House version of the bill, including one that would have repealed the Obama-era Clean Water Rule. The White House has not indicated yet if the President will sign the bill into law. Lawmakers are rushing to complete work on FY 2019 appropriations before the new fiscal year begins on October 1 in order to avoid a government shutdown, or a return to stop-gap spending plans to keep the lights on. A conference committee approved the Defense-Labor-Health spending package on September 13. It is currently unclear whether a deal on the Interior-Transportation-Agriculture-Financial Services spending package, will be reached soon or if the Environmental Protection Agen...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news