President Trump recently signed into law another short term extension of the federal fiscal funding to avert another shutdown of the federal government. The latest deadline will now be December 20th, leaving time to try to reach consensus on the $1.37 trillion FY2020 fiscal year, which began on October 1.
Further, it appears that House Appropriation Committee Chair Nita Lowey and her counterpart, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby, have agreed on the top-line numbers (or 302(b) figures), which set the upper limit for each of the 12 annual programmatic appropriations bills. The respective Chairs are pressing to pass each of the 12 annual appropriations bills by the new December 20 deadline. The agreement on the respective subcommittee allocations adheres to the defense and nondefense caps, agreed to as part of a two-year budget deal announced last July. Pursuant to that agreement, overall defense spending will be $738 billion for FY2020, while nondefense spending is pegged at $632 billion.
That agreement, however, may break down in our Nation’s Capital. We will keep you posted.
Contact: Jon Moran, Senior Legislative Analyst, jmoran@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x121.