House Bill Effectively Eliminates Defense Cap, Puts Off Non-Defense Funding
As the congressional session draws to a close this week, policymakers face the important tasks of enacting appropriations bills for fiscal year 2018 that began on
To reach agreement on 2018 funding, policymakers must first address the 2011 Budget Control Act's (BCA) legally binding caps on overall defense and non-defense funding and the further "sequestration" cuts to those caps under the BCA. Recognizing after the BCA's enactment that the post-sequestration caps were too low to meet either defense or non-defense funding needs, the President and
The last such measure expired in September, and
While eliminating the defense cap, the House bill also would enact a 2018 appropriations bill for the
See chart here (https://www.cbpp.org/blog/house-bill-effectively-eliminates-defense-cap-puts-off-non-defense-funding).
Meanwhile, the bill defers decisions about overall non-defense funding and the 11 other annual funding bills. Defense needs are important, but so are many non-defense needs, such as disease control and public health, scientific and medical research, medical care and other services for veterans, services and benefits for low-income people, law enforcement and homeland security, and environmental protection. (We've written about unmet needs in appropriated programs here (https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/unmet-needs-and-the-squeeze-on-appropriations) and here (https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/house-appropriations-bills-fall-far-short-of-meeting-national-needs).)
The House Republican plan to address defense funding now -- rather than as part of an overall agreement for defense- and non-defense funding -- would make it far less likely that
Indeed, addressing underfunding in both defense and non-defense areas is the basis of the agreement that House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders are negotiating. The House Republican effort to solely address defense will take time that lawmakers could better use to reach agreement on both defense and non-defense funding, enabling the long overdue appropriations process to proceed.
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