House Dems unveil plan for allocating $1.3T in spending

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced their plan for allocating $1.3 trillion in spending for 2020, an amount that’s about $51 billion above current levels.

 

The House Appropriations Committee detailed how Democrats intend to distribute defense and nondefense spending among the 12 spending bills that fund the federal government each fiscal year.

 

{mosads}About $27 billion of the $51 billion funding increase was allocated to Defense and the Labor, Health, Human Services and Education (Labor-H) bills — the two largest spending measures.

 

Defense received a $15.5 billion boost, bringing its proposed funding to $622 billion. The figure reflects changes in spending governed by discretionary caps and not the significant amount that is directed in emergency spending or in the Overseas Contingency Operations account.

 

The second-biggest increase went to Labor-H. The $11.8 billion boost brings that measure to $189.9 billion. The Appropriations Committee is slated to mark up that bill on Wednesday. 

 

Military construction and The Department of Veterans Affairs received a $8.1 billion increase in allocations, bringing that bill’s proposed total to $105.2 billion.

 

One of the lowest increases went to Homeland Security, the spending for which rose by about $300 million. The small addition leaves little room for adding funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall, something Democrats have long opposed.

 

Democrats added some $4.4 billion to transportation, $2.1 billion to State and foreign operations, $1.6 billion to Interior and environment, $1.3 billion to Agriculture, $1.8 billion to energy and water and $1.1 billion to financial services. The legislative branch got about a $200 million increase in allocations.

 

The House is moving to mark up each of the bills in the coming weeks and then pass them on the floor in June. The measures will likely be amended before the floor vote.

 

The House’s spending plans dismissed Trump’s proposal to drastically cut spending while adding billions of dollars for defense through off-book accounts.

 

The GOP-controlled Senate has yet to propose its own spending plan, and has been taking a wait-and-see approach as leaders from the Senate, House and White House hammer out a broader spending agreement.

 

Any deal would almost certainly make changes to statutory spending caps currently set for 2020. If left in place, those caps would automatically cut both defense and nondefense spending dramatically.