As we approach the dog days of summer, the federal appropriations process is finally heating up. This follows several months of being on hold as Congress tried to address the growing coronavirus pandemic, the staggering drop in unemployment, and cries for action regarding racial injustice and police brutality.
With Election Day less than four months away, several critical questions remain. Will Congress finish its consideration of all twelve appropriations bills before the September 30th fiscal year (FY) 2021 deadline?
Continue reading Summer Federal Appropriations Update at National Association of Regional Councils.
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Following the release of the $1.3 trillion fiscal year 2018 omnibus appropriations bill on March 21, NARC staff has been combing through the 2,232 page document to learn how localities will be impacted by these federal program funding levels. Much of it is great news for regions! The bill proposes additional funding for so many of the priorities we have advocated for over the last year.
Here are a few highlights:
Transportation
TIGER Grants: The TIGER program increased to $1.5 billion, tripling FY 2017’s funding level of $500 million.
]]>On February 12, the president officially submitted his fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget proposal and addendum to Congress. Much like last year’s FY 2018 budget proposal, the FY 2019 recommendations would make significant programmatic and funding changes to federal programs:
- The proposed budget would ratchet up the amount of money made available for military spending. The president’s budget would allocate $647 billion for defense spending in FY 2019 – the topline level established by the recent congressional two-year budget caps deal.
Congress is back from Thanksgiving break and confronted with some significant choices, including passage of a tax bill that substantially reduces the corporate tax rate and eliminates some common individual tax deductions, like the property tax and the inheritance tax.
From the outset, the goal has been to pass a tax cut bill – good or bad — before Congress breaks for the Christmas holiday. To do this House and Senate Republicans are moving at breakneck speed to get the bill to the president for his signature.
]]>Senators and representatives may be home for recess, but the issues they left in Washington will be here when they return on September 5. Not only will the issues be here, but the urgency to address them will have increased significantly.
Top issues that await them include: the adoption of a federal budget, 12 appropriations bills, legislation to raise the debt ceiling, and tax reform. It is also possible that health care legislation may come up for consideration again.
]]>It’s stuck because neither the House nor Senate has passed a budget plan that outlines spending for fiscal year (FY) 2018.
Why is it stuck?
Because the majorities in both chambers cannot agree on how much to spend on defense and non-defense programs. Moderate Republicans are concerned that a budget plan similar to the ones proposed by the president or the House speaker would make it very difficult for the House or Senate to maintain spending at current levels, let alone increase spending where consensus to increase spending existed.
]]>On Tuesday, June 27, 2017, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor/H) held a hearing at which the current Labor secretary, R. Alexander Acosta, testified on the president’s budget and other matters.
While the conversation often strayed in various directions, including worker safety, foreign workers, public safety, and worker layoffs, it ultimately returned to jobs, and the clear belief by most members of the subcommittee that putting Americans to work requires a robust and effective workforce development system.
]]>On Tuesday, May 23, the president introduced his first ever, full budget proposal: A New Foundation for American Greatness. If adopted into law, the budget would impose catastrophic cuts to non-defense discretionary programs (those most targeted to local programs), while dramatically increasing spending for defense-related programs.
If you believe that the greatness of a nation is measured by the vitality of its communities and the well being of its citizens than this budget does not meet its goal as a new foundation for American greatness.
]]>As you have no doubt heard by now, the Trump administration yesterday released a tax reform “plan” that filled just one side of a single sheet of paper. Which is to say, the plan is light on details. The “goals for tax reform” are outlined:
- “Grow the economy and create millions of jobs
- Simplify our burdensome tax code
- Provide tax relief to American families – especially middle-income families
- Lower the business tax rate from one of the highest in the world to one of the lowest”
Some of the specifics include reducing the number of tax brackets, doubling the standard deduction while eliminating a number of itemized deductions (but preserving the deductibility of mortgage interest and charitable gifts), repealing the inheritance tax and alternative minimum tax, reducing the corporate rate to 15%, and switching to a territorial system of taxation for corporations.
]]>The following article, Want America to be Great Again? Pay for It, by Pat Jones was originally published as a guest editorial in the April 18 issue of Time magazine. Pat Jones is the CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), an organization that represents tolling agencies from around the nation and world. His organization has been at the forefront of advocating for increased resources to maintain our roads, bridges and tunnels, and other infrastructure.
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