The Bipartisan Budgetary Appropriations Measure (BBAP): Implications for Health Care and Social Security, and for Enhancement of Retirement Savings
The legislative text of the massive full-year government funding bill was unveiled by lawmakers early Tuesday.
The expectation on Capitol Hill is that a shutdown will be avoided, but congressional leaders have little room for error given the tight timeline they are facing. Government funding is set to expire on Friday at midnight.
The spending bill is the product of lengthy negotiations between top congressional Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers reached a “bipartisan, bicameral framework” last week following a dispute between the two parties over how much money should be spent on non-defense domestic priorities. They worked through the weekend to craft the legislation.
There is a clear choice. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement. “Passing this bipartisan, bicameral, omnibus appropriations bill is undoubtedly in the interest of the American people. I want to thank my friends Vice ChairmanShelby and Chair DeLaur for their partnership and hard work, and it was the product of months of hard work and compromise. The Senate and the House should pass this bill.
The spending bill will be voted on first in the Senate in order to get the needed Republican votes to pass it in the House. As has been the case with recent catchall spending bills, lawmakers voiced concerns about passing legislation containing thousands of pages on short notice.
Enhance retirement savings: The bill contains new retirement rules that could make it easier for Americans to accumulate retirement savings – and less costly to withdraw them. The provisions would allow penalty-free withdrawals for some emergency expenses and allow employers to offer matching retirement plans for worker’s student loan payments.
Several measures were not included in the plan. The Safe Banking Act that would allow cannabis companies to keep their cash reserves, and other tax breaks, were not included in the final bill.
The FBI Headquarters Location Deal: A Senate Measure to Provide Extra State and Local Assistance to Ukraine in the Context of Ukraine’s War-Ranger Campaign
There was no resolution on the location of the FBI headquarters, a point of contention as lawmakers from Maryland sought to get the law enforcement agency into their state. In a deal worked through by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the General Services Administration would be required to conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with Maryland and Virginia representatives about potential sites in each of the states, according to a Senate Democratic aide.
The spending package includes about $45 billion emergency assistance to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be the largest American assistance to date to the war ravaged people of Ukraine and it would guarantee funding for months to come despite President Biden’s $37 billion emergency request.
The Senate is expected to approve the deal this week, and send it to the House for approval before the government funding expires on December 23. The bill would keep the government operating through September, the end of the fiscal year.
About $9 billion of the funding would go to Ukraine’s military to pay for a variety of things including training, weapons, logistics support and salaries. Nearly $12 billion would be used to replenish US stocks of equipment sent to Ukraine through presidential drawdown authority.
The bill would provide more than 38 billion dollars in emergency funding to help Americans in the west and southeast affected by recent natural disasters. It would aid farmers, provide economic development assistance for communities, repair and reconstruct federal facilities and direct money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, among other initiatives.
In response to the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, the law that deals with electoral vote counting is being changed to make it harder to overturn a certified presidential election.
It would be clear who the vice president is and how they would certify the electoral result. It also wants to make it more difficult for any confusion over the accurate slate of electors from each state.
A Measure of State Enhancement Including a Small Increase in the General Pell Grant Award for 2020, with an Implication for Education, Mental Health and Substance Abuse
The bill would increase the maximum Pell grant award by $500 for the coming school year. This would be the largest boost since the 2009-2010 school year. 7 million students are aided in paying for college with the aid of a grants, which are given out every year.
Increased support for the military and veterans: The package would fund a 4.6% pay raise for troops and a 22.4% increase in support for Veteran Administration medical care, which provides health services for 7.3 million veterans.
Additional funds would be allocated for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund to implement the landmark PACT Act that provides expanded benefits for veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service.
Beefing up nutrition assistance: The legislation would establish a permanent nationwide Summer EBT program, starting in the summer of 2024, according to Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger advocacy group. It would provide families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meal with a $40 grocery benefit per child per month, indexed to inflation.
It would also change the rules governing summer meals programs in rural areas. Children would be able to take home a meal of up to 10 days worth, instead of having to go somewhere and eat at a certain time.
The bill would also help families who have had their food stamp benefits stolen since October 1 through what’s known as “SNAP skimming.” It would give them retroactive reimbursement of the funds, which criminals steal by attaching devices to point-of-sale machines or PIN pads to get card numbers and other information from electronic benefits transfer cards.
More resources for children’s mental health and for substance abuse: The bill would provide more funds to increase access to mental health services for children and schools. It also would invest more money to address the opioid epidemic and substance use disorder.
$5 billion was provided for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by the bill. According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, this would be the largest regular appropriation for the program. Home heating and cooling costs – and the applications for federal aid in paying the bills – have soared this year.
More support for the environment: The package would provide an additional $576 million for the Environmental Protection Agency, bringing its funding up to $10.1 billion. After years of flat funding, it would increase support for clean air, water and toxic chemical programs.
Over the past decade, the National Park Service has lost over 3000 staff positions. The agency would like this to help handle increases in visitors.
More funding for the Capitol Police. The bill gives the Capitol Police $132 million more, for a total of $735 million. It would allow the department to hire up to 137 sworn officers and 123 support and civilian personnel, bringing the force to a projected level of 2,126 sworn officers and 567 civilians.
Investments in homelessness prevention and affordable housing: The legislation would provide $3.6 billion for homeless assistance grants, a 13% increase. It would serve more than 1 million people experiencing homelessness.
The package would give $6.4 billion to the Community Development Block Grant formula program and related local economic and community development projects that benefits low and moderate income areas and people.
Plus, it would provide $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which would lead to the construction of nearly 10,000 new rental and homebuyer units and maintain the record investment from the last fiscal year.
The American Rescue Plan: Negotiating Enhanced Child Tax Credits for Medical Marijuana Users in the Light of China’s National Security Laws
China’s national security laws may force TikTok or its parent, Byte Dance, to hand over the personal data of US users. Statelevel restrictions on the use of TikTok on government owned devices have been introduced by a wave of Republican governors.
Enhanced child tax credit: A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates pushed hard to extend at least one provision of the enhanced child tax credit, which was in effect last year thanks to the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The priority was to make the credit more likely to be used by low income families. The Tax Policy Center believes that nearly 19 million children will not get the full $2,000 benefit this year because their parents don’t earn enough.
Even though 47 states have legalized some form of marijuana, cannabis remains illegal on the federal level. That means financial institutions providing banking services to cannabis businesses are subject to criminal prosecution – leaving many legal growers and sellers locked out of the banking system.
“The bitterness of winter has descended on Eastern Europe, and if our friends in Ukraine hope to triumph Russia, America must stand firmly on the side of our democratic friends abroad,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has warned that if the fiscal year 2023 spending measure fails to gain bipartisan support this week, he would seek another short-term patch into next year, guaranteeing that the new Republican majority in the House would get to shape the package.
“We’ve transferred huge sums of money away from Democrats’ spending wish list towards our national defense and armed forces but without allowing the overall cost of the package to go higher,” McConnell said.
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget said that neither side got everything they wanted in the deal. But she praised the measure as “good for our economy, our competitiveness, and our country, and I urge Congress to send it to the President’s desk without delay.”
A Senate Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said Schumer worked to incorporate language in the spending bill ensuring the General Service Administration conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with lawmakers representing the Maryland and Virginia sites to get their perspectives.
Reply to Scott’s “Cosmology of the Second Amendment”: How Congress Meteorized the War on the Warped Land
The last time Congress passed all its spending legislation was in 1996, when the Senate finished its work. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it that same day.
“We still haven’t seen any page of the bill, and they expect us to pass it by the end of the week,” Scott said. “It’s crazy.”
McConnell said he shares many of his coworkers’ unhappiness with the process. He said failing to pass the bill would give our armed forces confusion and uncertainty as China pours money into new research and weapons.