Appropriations Update: Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Predicts Continuing Resolutions, Democrats Propose Spending Ceiling
House Democrats proposed a resolution that would allow for $1.5 trillion in discretionary funding for FY 2022. Meanwhile, Republican Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) has predicted stopgap measures will be necessary to avert a shutdown while negotiations continue.
The Democrats’ resolution would set a $1.506 trillion cap on spending from which appropriators can carve out agency funding. The measure provides internal limits on congressional spending. This request is a 9 percent increase in spending compared to last year, which the House Budget Committee says is essential for restoring “critical public services and benefits after almost a decade of austerity and uncertainty.”
The Biden administration’s budget proposal included $770 billion, or a 16.5 percent increase, for domestic and foreign aid programs, and $753 billion for defense, a 1.6 percent boost. The defense spending increase has sparked controversy from both sides of the aisle, with Republicans calling for a larger increase in spending and progressives like Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling for a 10 percent decrease.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced he wants to use July to start marking up 2022 spending bills.
Senator Leahy furthered, “It is essential that Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, work along-side the White House to negotiate budget toplines so that we can commence the appropriations process for the fiscal year that begins October 1.”
However, Appropriations Vice Chair Shelby predicted multiple continuing resolutions to avert a September 30th shutdown during negotiations. Senator Shelby predicts a final funding deal no earlier than winter.
Acting White House Budget Director Shalanda D. Young explained that while there is currently no plan in place to advance bipartisan negotiations for the budget process, both the House and the Senate need to reach a deal. Young, who was a longtime appropriations committee staffer prior to joining the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said, “it has to be a bipartisan process” in order to enact the FY 2022 spending bills. Appropriations bills need to get past the Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold to advance.
