A bipartisan budget deal signed into law on November 2 removed the immediate threat of a federal government shutdown tied to a looming deadline to raise the debt limit, but the agreement still requires lawmakers to finalize the details of the government’s fiscal year 2016 funding plan by December 11.
The budget deal accomplished two important objectives. First, it suspended the federal debt limit through March of 2017, ensuring the U.S. government will not face the prospect of a default for the remainder of President Obama’s term. In the absence of a debt limit agreement, the Treasury Department had announced the nation would reach its borrowing ceiling on November 3 – which would cause the government to immediately curtail spending by shuttering departments and suspending services. The agreement reached in Congress eliminates the threat of a shutdown tied to a possible default for the next 17 months.
Second, the agreement established a budget framework for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years that offers some relief from the bare bones sequestration-level allotments that had attracted harsh opposition from the White House and congressional Democrats. The budget deal provides an additional $25 billion in discretionary non-defense spending authority in 2016 and another $15 billion in FY17 – providing appropriators with breathing room when making appropriations decisions for EPA and other federal activities.
Now that the budget framework is in place, congressional appropriators will get to work dividing up the budget pie among various departments and agencies – a task made somewhat easier by the extra $25 billion added to the pot. A portion of these additional funds could be used to supplement EPA’s budget, which House lawmakers had proposed cutting down to $7.4 billion next year (including just $757 million for the DWSRF – an 18-year low), but Appropriations Committee members will huddle to flesh out proposals in the coming weeks.
In spite of the progress represented by the budget deal, the threat of a government shutdown this year still remains. The federal government continues to operate under a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) that extended FY15 funding authorities through December 11, so an omnibus FY16 spending bill (or another short-term CR) must become law by that date to keep the government running. Among the policy riders that could throw the bill off-track include proposals to ban the use of funds to implement EPA’s Clean Water Rule or to allow the admission of Syrian refugees to the U.S.