President Trump and congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal July 22 on a two-year budget plan that will increase discretionary spending limits and suspend the nation’s debt ceiling until the middle of 2021. The House of Representatives subsequently voted to approve the plan, and the Senate is expected to give its blessing before departing for the August recess.
The agreement increases the FY20 nondefense base discretionary budget limit to $622 billion, a $17 billion boost over the FY19 limit. Congressional appropriators will divide this $622 billion pie among the nondefense budget accounts that are funded through the annual appropriations bills. While the topline increase does not guarantee more funding for any particular department or agency, the larger pot of available discretionary funding could bode well for EPA appropriations.
While the budget deal represents an increase over FY19, the $622 billion figure in the agreement falls short of the $673 billion in nondefense discretionary funding that Democratic House appropriators chose to use as a guide when they began marking up FY20 spending proposals earlier this year. That higher figure led the House of Representatives to approve an EPA spending bill worth a near-record $9.53 billion. Unless lawmakers divert a significant amount of available budget authority to EPA, the agency’s final FY20 appropriation is likely to fall below that sum.
The budget deal paves the way for lawmakers to make real progress on FY20 appropriations bills. While the House of Representatives has approved its versions of most FY20 bills based on their higher budget figure, the Senate had chosen to wait until a budget deal was in place before offering any legislation. Assuming Senate appropriators can begin moving their legislation in September, both chambers will begin negotiating final spending legislation as the new fiscal year approaches on October 1.