Congress is hurrying to pass this year’s budget (FY2017) before the Easter recess… and before the April 28th government-shutdown deadline. Meanwhile, the work on next year’s budget (FY2018) gets underway. And almost everything affects Indian Country.
1. The Old Budget. The one that was supposed to be passed before October 1, 2016.
The budget resolution for FY2017 (the year we’re in right now, which started October 1) still hasn’t passed. It was the “shell” lurking in the background – the legislative carrier for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Why that odd marriage between health care and a budget resolution? Budget resolutions (real ones) typically carry provisions called “reconciliation instructions.” These instructions tell various committees in Congress to change programs – especially tax and entitlement programs—to “reconcile” income and outgo in the budget. The assigned committees put together a bill – called a “reconciliation bill” – which carries all of the proposed changes in taxes and entitlement programs.
In a year when rules and schedules are being followed, the reconciliation bill comes to the House and Senate floors for votes in August or September. The House considers it and passes it (or not) with a majority vote. The Senate, however, typically keeps to a rule requiring a 60-vote majority to pass legislation. Because the decisions in reconciliation bills are both very divisive and very necessary, Senate rules are relaxed for this type of bill, allowing a simple majority vote – 51 votes – for approval.
So congressional leaders often try to fashion other kinds legislation to fit the rules of a reconciliation bill. The Affordable Care Act was passed as a reconciliation bill – it fit the rules because it included changes in entitlement funding and imposed fees and taxes. So it squeaked through the Senate with a “mere” majority vote, and this year the health care repeal bill was supposed to do the same thing. But it didn’t get passed by the House.
Which brings us back to the budget. The old budget that was supposed to have been passed. In the absence of actual appropriations (spending) bills, the spending authority for FY2017 was continued in a bill called a “continuing resolution” – first for a few weeks and then for a few months. It will expire on April 28 and the government will shut down, unless Congress agrees on something that will continue operations for the rest of this Fiscal Year.
Last week, the President sent some new requests for programs cuts in the FY2017 budget – an additional $18 billion to be cut from student aid, medical research, community development and other domestic programs, and $33 billion to be added to the military and Homeland Security budgets. Appropriators were not amused.
Most of the appropriations committees in the House and Senate have done their work on their areas of the budget. They need to agree in the next two weeks, before their two-week Easter recess, whether they’ll try to cobble those together, or just to continue the current rate of spending for another five months. “Not a lot of appetite for drama,” one Republican appropriator commented.
2. The New Budget. The one that should be approved by September 30, 2017.
Typically when there is a new Administration, the President’s budget proposal is presented to Congress later than the customary early February date. This year, the President presented an outline of sorts in mid-March, and is expected to present more details sometime in May.
The outline caused quite a stir in Congress – in both houses and in both parties. The proposed cuts to programs that assist working people disturbed many members of Congress who know, especially following the health care debate, that their constituents are watching Congress closely.
Here are some examples of the cuts that the President proposes:
- Support for tribes and tribal projects: Tribes access funds from various agencies, often coupling grant and loan assistance from two or more to match with tribal, state, local, and private investments for major projects. Of the 12 appropriations bills that Congress considers in a typical year, Native American programs and programs essential to tribes appear in 11 of them. (Which one is not so important to Indian Country? The one that funds Congress.)
Many of the cuts in the examples below will affect some tribal projects and many tribal families both on and off reservations.
Department of the Interior: From the president’s “America First” budget document – “Supports tribal sovereignty and self-determination across Indian Country by focusing on core funding and services to support ongoing tribal government operations. The budget reduces funding for more recent demonstration projects and initiatives that only serve a few tribes.” Increases funding for “environmentally responsible development of energy on public lands and offshore waters.” “Eliminates unnecessary, lower priority, or duplicative programs, including discretionary Abandoned Mine Land grants that overlap with existing mandatory grants, [and] National Heritage Areas that are more appropriately funded locally…”
Assistance to poor communities: The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Community Services Block Grant and the Community Development Block Grant programs would be eliminated.
Assistance to low income families and children: The Department of Housing and Urban Development – chronically underfunded – a 13 percent cut, including the elimination of the Community Development Block grant programs. In the Department of Education, before and after-school programs – a lifeline for children in many poor families – would be eliminated. Other cuts in the Department of Education would bring the total to a 13 percent cut. Legal Services Corporation would close.
Mass transportation support: Funding for the TIGER program would end and subsidies for AMTRAK would be reduced.
Medical research: National Institutes of Health would lose about 18 percent.
Supporting small business development, especially in minority communities: A 16 percent cut in the Department of Commerce would come from eliminating the Economic Development Administration, the Minority Business Development Agency and the federal part of a public-private partnership that advises small and medium-sized businesses – the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. Small Business Administration would be cut by 5 percent.
Support for rural communities: Department of Agriculture would be cut by 21 percent. Appalachian Regional Commission would be eliminated.
Saving the environment: The Environmental Protection Agency would lose almost a third of its budget – a 31 percent cut. Funding for the “Clean Power Plan,” the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and the Chesapeake Bay clean-up program would be ended. U.S. participation in the Global Climate Change fund would end.
Developing and saving energy: Department of Energy programs (other than the programs for nuclear weapons development) would be cut by about 18 percent.
General Education and the Arts: Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would end. National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities would be eliminated.
Non-military relations with people in other countries: The State Department and U.S. Aid for International Development (direct assistance to poor communities in other countries) would lose 28 percent. Funding for United Nations programs would be decreased. U.S. Institute of Peace would close.
Employment and Training Services: Department of Labor programs would be cut by 21 percent, shifting the responsibility for these functions to state and local governments, and eliminating some programs.
In mid-May, the president is expected to present all of the program- by-program details. The details show how he and his staff arrived at the totals he is proposing. Congress can make different choices among priorities in the appropriations process.
The Next Two Steps Are…
1. Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Resolution. Congress considers and adopts a FY2018 budget resolution to establish “top line” numbers – how much income is expected, how much will be spent through the appropriations process on discretionary programs, and how much will be spent on entitlement programs, if no changes are made in the programs.
If Congress decides that spending on entitlement programs needs to be reduced, or that revenues need to be increased or reduced, it can include “reconciliation instructions” in the budget resolution. The committees that work on the entitlement programs can change eligibility rules, or change the amount and kind of benefit that individuals can receive through the program. For example, under President Reagan, low-income students with children were excluded from the food stamp program.
Quiz question: Does Congress control spending only in discretionary programs? Answer: No. Congress also controls the cost, size and availability of entitlement programs. It just uses a different process to make changes.”
2. Appropriations. The budget resolution, once adopted, is translated into allocations for each of the spending committees (the twelve appropriations subcommittees.) Each subcommittee works on specific funding for specific programs within the departments under its jurisdiction. The subcommittees take the President’s proposals under advisement, but can make their own choices within the allocations they were given from the overall budget resolution.
Your next step? Take action. Now you see why.
