The House is likely to pass its 8-bill appropriations package in early September, but the Senate might not finish all of its bills by the end of the month. So Congress will have to agree on at least a temporary spending measure, as the funds allocated in the FY2017 appropriations package will end on September 29.
When Congress comes back on stage on September 5, there will be new lines to learn. House leaders plan to move all of the House apppropriations bills in early September as part of an eight-bill package released by the House Rules Committee on August 16. (The eight-bill package can be found on the House Rules Committee website, but – caution - the link on that page leads to a 1309-page download.)
Meanwhile, in the Senate, the full Appropriations Committee has approved six (out of 12) spending bills. Two of particular interest to Indian country are the Commerce, Justice, Science bill (CJS) and the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development bill (T-HUD). Other bills impacting programs in Indian country are still being considered in appropriations subcommittees.
And – Congress needs to write a budget. The spending measures that are moving through committees and onto the floor of the House and Senate are being written without the authority of a budget. In July, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees issued “temporary sub-allocations,” naming the amounts that each subcommittee could spend on the agencies and programs under its jurisdiction. This information is usually agreed to in each chamber as part of the Budget Resolution. This year, appropriators made their own decisions; the budget will have to catch up at the end of the process.
New spending will also increase the federal debt, once again surpassing the current limit on borrowing (“breaking the debt ceiling.”) Increasing the authority to borrow, which used to be an automatic operation accompanying budget bills, has become a contentious issue every time it comes up. It pits “big government” philosophies against more “federalist” lines, and fuels arguments about which parts of the budget are more worthy of big spending, and about the appropriate level of taxation. But more than these debates, raising the debt ceiling is absolutely necessary for a functioning government that doesn’t want to shut down. Therefore, legislation to raise the debt ceiling attracts riders (amendments) that are unrelated to the business at hand, except in the eye of the proposer. It’s a difficult, and essential, bill to work through congressional processes.
Health care reform may yet return to the stage, but probably only after Congress figures out what to do about taxes. Tax bills come to the floor through the “reconciliation process,” which limits amendments and requires simple majority votes (as opposed to the Senate’s customary 60-vote rule.) When tax bills reduce taxes (as the President intends – at least for some), they are typically coupled with cuts in mandatory spending programs – such as Medicaid – to cover their “cost.” So a tax debate may set the stage for a re-run of the Medicaid debate.
Looking ahead, the Capitol will be noisy once again.
