House eyes omnibus deal by August recess – E&E News

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George Cahlink, E&E News reporter

Congressional leaders are worried about a time crunch for tackling spending, the debt ceiling and the rest of their agenda. Wikipedia (bill); Ed Uthman/Flickr (Capitol)

With momentum building toward an omnibus fiscal 2018 spending package in the House before the August recess, energy and environmental agencies stand a greater chance to get fresh dollars than in recent years.

House lawmakers are considering marking up all 12 annual appropriations bills in quick succession over the next several weeks and then combining them into one package that would hit the floor by the end of July, before Congress leaves for a five-week summer recess.

Those bills could also potentially move in tandem with a fiscal 2018 budget resolution and a measure to raise the debt ceiling.

Lawmakers are eager to make headway on fiscal issues rather than bump up against the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 and a looming deadline for raising the nation's borrowing authority. It would allow Republicans to use the fall to focus on another top legislative priority, a tax overhaul, and diminish the prospects of shutting down the government.

"We always knew we were going to have an abbreviated budgeting process in this first year, like we do with every new administration," Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters yesterday. "So we're trying to figure out what's the best way to deal with our appropriations process, our budget process, given the ambition for tax reform" and the need to address other fiscal issues.

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Additionally, an omnibus would likely allow for sidestepping the floor fights over partisan policy riders that have bogged down work on the energy-water and EPA-Interior spending bills in recent years. Broad spending packages, like the one Congress passed last month for funding the remainder of fiscal 2017, usually get bipartisan support because of their wide reach.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was quick to chide Republicans this week for ignoring regular order by considering an omnibus without first considering any individual spending bills. But, he added, Democrats view a broad funding package as a "step up" from relying on emergency spending bills.

"It's just hard to see the time to do all 12 spending bills," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior appropriator, who said the idea is "attractive" to many House members who see the omnibus as a way to get a floor vote on every bill ahead of final spending negotiations with the Senate.

Any House package would change in the Senate, where Democrats still have the ability to filibuster spending bills. Still, a House-passed package would give the chamber a stronger negotiating hand than relying on spending bills that have only been voted out of committee.

Cole said there still likely would be some room for amendments even on a broad deal but said they could be "harder" to get attached if the underlying omnibus has bipartisan support.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, at a hearing yesterday alluded to the tight calendar given that the White House budget request came about three months later than usual this year.

"This budget season is going to be a challenge," said Calvert. "We have a short time, a short window here we have to solve this, so we're going to be working hard on this committee."

Staunch House conservatives, who in the past have held up the spending bills to try to force deeper cuts, seem willing to pass up those fights this time with an eye toward focusing on longer-term budgeting goals and tax reform.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, said the group would be open to an omnibus provided there is room to at least offer some policy riders. He said an omnibus would be better than a fall dominated by fights over stopgap measures as has been the case in recent years.

"We want to get it done," said Meadows.

It's not year clear when, or even if, the House will take up its annual budget resolution this year that would offer a nonbinding funding blueprint for appropriators.

If one is not adopted, the chamber could choose to deem an overall spending discretionary spending level that appropriators would then divide among the 12 bills.

House Budget Chairwoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.) would not commit this week to moving a budget before the July 4 recess, telling reporters she was working to find "consensus."

Black and other GOP leaders are especially eager to move a budget this year with provisions calling for a tax overhaul, which under obscure budgeting rules would make it far easier to get tax legislation written and passed through the Senate later in the year.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently asked Congress to approve an increase in the nation's borrowing limit before leaving for summer recess.

The debt ceiling had not been expected to be hit until the fall, but as tax revenues have lagged, the administration has called for earlier action to avoid the chance at defaulting on federal debt.

GOP lawmakers have signaled an openness to a clean extension with most unwilling to risk an unprecedented federal default. It remains to be seen, though, whether other provisions could be woven into the debt deal, which in the past has been used as a vehicle to move both tax breaks and spending cuts.

The Freedom Caucus has said it would only back a debt limit increase if it were coupled with calls for other long-term, structural budget reforms that could force reductions in discretionary accounts and federal entitlements.

Meadows, however, conceded the right's view might not carry if Democrats joined with other more moderate Republicans to back a clean increase in the debt ceiling.

Hoyer said this week Democrats would be willing to support a clean debt ceiling increase but stressed it could not be tied to moving a tax package.

Reporter Kellie Lunney contributed.

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House eyes omnibus deal by August recess - E&E News