Director’s Desk: January 13, 2014
Kenneth Gold | January 13, 2014
With the January 15 deadline to pass the FY14 appropriations bills fast approaching, on Friday House Appropriations Chair Harold Rogers (R-KY) filed a “clean” three-day extension of the current continuing resolution, which is expected to pass both chambers by Wednesday. Both sides continue to report good progress on the $1.012 trillion omnibus bill, with Chairman Rogers disclosing that 10 of the 12 bills are all but completed, and that the plan is to include all 12 in the omnibus, meaning that none would be funded with a separate CR.
Nonetheless, challenges remain, especially with respect to policy riders related to the Affordable Care Act, to Dodd-Frank financial regulations, and to abortion. In addition, Republican fiscal conservatives in the House continue to oppose the overall funding level, and still prefer the much smaller, $967 billion discretionary level contained in the House budget resolution. In an attempt to contain opposition, negotiators have still not revealed the spending levels for the individual bills (the 302(b) allocations). If the overall spending level remains at the $1.012 level agreed to in December’s Ryan-Murray agreement, it’s clear that Speaker Boehner will again need to rely on significant support from Democrats in order to pass the bill in the House.
It’s obviously a critical point for federal spending, and we’ll be looking at this as well as other important issues in this week’s Congressional Update on Capitol Hill. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
-Ken Gold, GAI Director
Categories: Director's Desk, Updates