President Obama will unveil his fiscal year 2017 budget request on February 9, the White House announced this month. The release of the President’s budget will formally begin the FY17 appropriations process – a process that congressional Republican leaders have indicated they would like to expedite this year.
Under the law the President’s budget is supposed to be sent to Congress by the first Monday in February (or February 2 this year), but this deadline is typically bypassed and there are no legal ramifications for a delayed release. Obama’s final budget will debut one week after this date, providing the public’s first look at the administration’s FY17 request for the Environmental Protection Agency and its water and wastewater infrastructure funding programs.
Once the President’s request is made, the House and Senate will each develop their own budget blueprints, followed by what Republican leaders hope is consideration and passage of all 12 annual spending bills before the 2017 fiscal begins on October 1. But while opposition from Democrats and battles over controversial amendments may sidetrack hopes of passing all 12 spending bills individually, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has pledged to bring the House’s budget resolution to the floor during the first week of March – a timeframe that will allow the chamber to get to work on the individual spending bills earlier this year than they have in the recent past.
The accelerated timeframe for completing the appropriations process this year is in part due to the year’s shortened congressional calendar. Lawmakers will be out of Washington for the final two weeks of July for the presidential nominating conventions (in addition to the customary month-long August recess), and congressional leaders hope to have all pre-election business on Capitol Hill wrapped up by the end of September.