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Moving Right Along: The House Appropriations Subcommittees were busy this week, passing the CJS, Labor-HHS, T-HUD, Interior, and Energy and Water bills out of their respective subcommittees. All House Appropriations Subcommittees have reported their bills. Full committee markups of these bills are expected the week after July 4th.
Republican leadership is also hoping to pass the Homeland Security, S-FOPs, and Defense bills out of the House today. If all Republican members are present today for votes (some went to last night's debate in Atlanta), the vote will occur today and the bills should pass. If there are absences on the floor, we expect the vote to be delayed until July, which could get trickier. There were over 800 amendments to these three bills, and the House has spent much of its floor time this week on amendment debates. Of course, Democrats and the Administration are opposed to the bills, but as Cole has repeated, this is the House's "opening bid" is a long process to fund the government. We encourage readers to approach news outlets that sensationalize partisan drama at this early stage with caution.
Senate B's are Buzzing: Following her announcement regarding subcommittee allocations for Agriculture, MilCon-VA, and Leg Branch last week, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray has reportedly discussed plans to move forward with partisan 302(b) allocations for the nine other subcommittees. At this point, no official announcement has been made, but such a move would allow subcommittee staff to draft their bills.
Shocking Statistic: CQ reported that "one eye-popping statistic that didn't appear in last week's CBO baseline update: Interest payments to foreign holders of U.S. debt topped $200 billion for the first time last year." Paying more in interest to foreign holders of our debt than we do on our own military pay and benefits, food stamps, transportation and several other categories for FY23 (CQ) should cause pause. We will have to wait and see if lawmakers use this new information as another reason to press toward a more balanced budget. Appropriations is an easy target when discussing balancing the budget, but there are bigger drivers of deficit spending – including entitlement and tax policy – both of which we expect to be discussed next Congress.
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