Budget CR/Update: December Shutdown Unlikely; Next Showdown in January

December 20, 2017 NTEU280

From a friend of NTEU Chapter 280.....

After House Republicans decided late last night against proceeding with their defense-only cromnibus, it looks like NDD and DOD both will be extended at current levels through January 19th. I have been told there are a few goodies for defense in this deal, but it is not a full-year defense appropriation. It is not yet clear what - if any - deal has been struck to adjust the BCA caps in this CR to avoid a sequester in mid-January. At that time, current level funding will exceed the BCA-specified FY 2018 discretionary caps for both NDD and DOD. It is this BCA mid-January sequester deadline that led Congressional leaders to choose Jan 19th as the expiration date for the pending CR. This deadline will force Congress to develop and pass some form of an amendment to the BCA. This amendment could adjust discretionary spending caps for all the remaining years of the BCA, not just FY 2018. For this reason, it is urgent that we keep up our demand for NDD parity. It was concern about disaster aid that brought down the House Republican defense-only cromnibus bill. Some of the key R votes needed to pass the $81 billion aid + cromnibus package balked at adding so much to the deficit. Leaders have since decided to move the disaster aid package separately as stand-alone legislation. There is language that provides price support for a certain type of cotton in the House disaster bill. Some Senators want price supports for dairy products as well, so the aid package is still being negotiated. The NSA surveillance reauthorization, or any extension of it, is set to move separately also. While this last minute defense funding retreat by House Republicans probably avoids a pre-Christmas government shutdown, it sets the stage for another confrontation between defense and NDD in January. Dems may have more leverage at that point because the surveillance and disaster aid elements will have been dealt with. At least that's the plan. However, those items may be delayed by a month also, in which case the complex mix of issues complicating agency funding will continue. The major issue remaining in the pending CR is whether the Alexander-Murray (AM) bill can be added successfully to what is now a more routine funding extension House Republican opposition to AM without specific prohibitions on abortion is poised to sink McConnell's deal with Collins. Even Collins does not want this disagreement to force a shutdown.