OVERNIGHT MONEY: Spending bills moving
by Vicki Needham, The Hill
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Spending bills getting attention: The House Appropriations Committee will slog its way through another — its fifth of 12 annual bills — fiscal 2014 spending measure on Tuesday while the Senate panel gets off the starting line with two subcommittee markups.
The House takes up its Republican-generated energy and water measure that would cut spending on renewable energy in half next year as part of the plan to deal with scheduled across-the-board spending cuts.
Renewable energy would see a slash to $1 billion, a reduction of $911 million compared with 2013. The House is aiming for the topline spending levels of $967 billion as called for under the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Because the House is increasing defense spending above the sequester’s level, they are forced to cut non-defense spending.
Two Senate subcommittees will take up the agriculture spending bill and the measure for military construction and veterans affairs. The panel has yet to produce drafts for the measures yet, but it is widely understood they will come in at the higher topline $1.058 trillion spending level.
The House Committee approved its version of the agriculture measure last week, which provides funds for agricultural and food programs and services, including food safety, rural development and farm services and nutrition programs.
The bill totals $19.5 billion in discretionary funding, which is $1.3 billion below the fiscal 2013 enacted level and about the same level caused by automatic sequestration. The total is $516 million below President Obama’s request for the programs.
In addition, the House easily passed the military construction bill on June 4, which includes $73.3 billion in discretionary funding and is $1.4 billion above the enacted level for fiscal 2013, and about $2.4 billion above the current level caused by automatic sequestration spending cuts, which do not affect veterans spending. This level is nearly $1.4 billion below the president’s request.
Both committees are aiming to get through all 12 of the spending bills before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
