December 08, 2016

H.R. 2028 – FY 2017 Continuing Resolution

Noteworthy

Background: The fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution, to extend funding beyond December 9, was released on December 6. The House is expected to consider the bill on Thursday, December 8.

Floor Situation: The Senate will consider the CR after the House. No unanimous consent agreements affecting consideration of the CR are in place at this time.

Executive Summary: The bill extends funding for 11 of the 12 appropriations bills through April 28, 2017. The Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill was enacted in September along with the first CR, so those activities are already funded for the remainder of fiscal year 2017.

The bill also includes Overseas Contingency Operations funding of $10.1 billion – $5.8 billion for the Department of Defense and $4.3 billion for the Department of State. The CR includes $4.1 billion in disaster relief to assist with recovery from flooding and Hurricane Matthew.

Text and Senate Appropriations Committee summaries of the CR are available here. The CBO score is available here.

Notable Bill Provisions

Funding Level

When combined with the already-enacted Military Construction/Veterans Affairs bill, the CR will provide regular (non-disaster, non-OCO) discretionary funding at an annualized level of $1.070 trillion. This is identical to the total fiscal year 2017 spending caps under the Budget Control Act and a slight increase over the fiscal year 2016 total caps of $1.067 trillion. The CR passed in September was an annualized total equal to the 2016 level, as is normal for CR extensions lasting only a few months. Since this CR will extend seven months into fiscal year 2017, the 2017 level has been used.

Anomalies

The bill continues provisions of the current continuing resolution unless specifically overridden, and includes other provisions such as:

  1. Maintaining planned launch schedules for the Joint Polar Satellite System. (section 151)

  2. Maintaining the timeline for the 2020 census. (section 152)

  3. Maintaining NASA launch schedules. (section 153)

  4. $7 million for local law enforcement overtime costs associated with protecting the president-elect. (section 154)

  5. Funding flexibility for Department of Defense procurement. (sections 155-7)

  6. Sale of $375 million worth of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as authorized by the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act. (section 159)

  7. Makes funds previously appropriated for the District of Columbia Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act school voucher program immediately available to eligible entities to provide scholarships for eligible students, support administrative expenses, and for other purposes. (Section 162)

  8. Maintain border security, enforce immigration laws, provide aviation security and protect the president-elect by allowing apportionment flexibility at Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Administration, and the Secret Service. (Section 163)

  9. Provides funds to continue health care benefits through April 30, 2017, for certain retired miners and their families under the United Mine Workers Association 1993 Benefit Plan, otherwise scheduled to expire at or near the end of 2016. Also calls for transfer of funds to the UMW benefit plan from a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association established as a result of related coal mining company bankruptcy proceedings. According to CBO, this provision will result in a net savings of $2 million. (section 167)

  10. Transfers funding from renovations of Social Security’s headquarters building to address the backlog at the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. (section 172)

  11. Continues Temporary Assistance for Needy Families through the length of the CR. (section173)

  12. Prohibits cost of living adjustments for 2017 for members of Congress. (section 175)

  13. Establishes an expedited procedure for the consideration of legislation in the next Congress to provide for an exception to the limitation that “a person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer.” This would apply only to “the first person appointed” to be secretary of defense after the date of enacting such legislation. It further provides that passage of such legislation “shall require an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members.” President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate James Mattis to be his first Secretary of Defense. Mattis left his position as the head of U.S. Central Command on March 22, 2013, and retired from the military later that year. (section 179)

  14. Provides a technical fix to the 2016 omnibus regarding rest-hour requirements for truck drivers. A provision in the 2016 omnibus effectively overturned 2013 Department of Transportation rules regarding rest hours. Based on the text of that provision, the 2013 rules, once overturned, would be replaced with 2003 rules, rather than the more recent 2011 rules. The current provision would amend the 2016 omnibus to clarify that the 2011 rules should apply. (section 180)

  15. Maintains aviation safety and avoids disruption of NextGen projects. (section 181)

  16. Delays until after the end of this CR sequestration reports from OMB and CBO, if the total annualized level of all regular discretionary spending does not exceed the total funding level permitted for 2017: $1,069,599,000,000. Currently this total is made up of two separate caps, one for defense and one for nondefense. (section 184)

  17. Provides funding for the 21st Century Cures Act” $20 million for FDA; $352 million for NIH; and $500 million in additional funding for opioid abuse prevention and treatment. (sections 193-5)

  18. Provides $170 million to address water infrastructure and health needs in Flint, Michigan, and other communities with heightened levels of lead in their drinking water. Includes $100 million in capitalization grants under the Safe Drinking Water Act to improve drinking water infrastructure; $20 million in direct and guaranteed loans under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 to improve drinking water infrastructure; and $50 million in health programs. The health programs include $17.5 million to establish a voluntary lead exposure registry, $2.5 million to establish an advisory committee on federal programs addressing lead exposure, $15 million for the childhood lead poisoning prevention program under the Public Health Service Act, and $15 million for the Healthy Start Initiative under the Public Health Service Act. Fully offsets funding by rescinding $170 million from a one-time appropriation of $14.7 billion for fiscal year 2017 for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (sections 196-201)

Disaster Relief

The CR includes the following in disaster relief to respond to Hurricane Matthew, flooding, and other eligible disasters:

  1. Section 185 – $206.1 million for the Department of Agriculture

  2. Section 186 – $74.4 million for NASA construction and environmental programs

  3. Sections 187-90 – $1 billion for the Corps of Engineers

  4. Section 191 – $1 billion for highway emergency relief

  5. Section 192 – $1.8 billion for Community Development Block Grants

Defense Function Funding and OCO

The CR for fiscal year 2017 passed in September provides funding rates very close to the administration’s fiscal year 2017 request. For example, $551.1 billion was requested in base defense function discretionary funding for fiscal year 2017, and the CR provided an annualized rate of $546.5 billion. The request for fiscal year 2017 Overseas Contingency Operations funding in the defense function was for $58.8 billion, and the continuing resolution provided an annualized spending rate of $59.4 billion.

This continuing resolution now before Congress provides for increases in the annualized rates of spending for base funding for the defense function due to the reduction in the across-the-board cut from 0.496 percent to 0.1901 percent. Defense function totals increased by $1.6 billion to $548.1 billion. This is slightly above the fiscal year 2016 cap level.

The CR now under consideration then goes on in Division B to address President Obama’s additional OCO request made after the election. He requested an additional $5.8 billion in OCO funding for the Department of Defense. This bill provides that full amount. When the $1.6 billion in increases made to the total base funding for the defense function is added to that additional OCO funding, the CR now before Congress provides funding for the defense function that is almost $8 billion more than was provided in the expiring continuing resolution.

The president also requested an additional $5.8 billion in OCO funding for the Department of State. This bill provides $4.3 billion of that request.

Administration Position

A Statement of Administration policy is not available at this time.

Cost

CBO reports that the CR would provide regular (non-disaster, non-OCO) discretionary funding at an annualized level of $1.070 trillion, identical to the total fiscal year 2017 spending permitted under the Budget Control Act.