The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a two-year, $2.7 trillion budget agreement on a 284-149 vote, a move that would allow the federal government to keep borrowing money.
The new federal budget caps deal provides $2.5 billion more in base defense spending than the 2020 budget the House of Representatives has already approved.
The pact would permit $666.5 billion in base defense spending for fiscal 2020. In appropriations legislation passed in June, the House provided around $664 billion in base defense spending for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) defense cleanup spending, and other departmental defense programs represent roughly $22.5 billion of that total.
Under the House 2020 Energy and Water budget bill, the Energy Department would in total receive $37.1 billion, up by $1.4 billion from current spending and $5.6 billion from the White House request. The bill was passed in June as part of a “minibus” appropriations bill.
The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration would get $15.9 billion, up $665.7 million from the enacted level. Funding for nuclear cleanup managed by the Office of Environmental Management would remain flat at about $7.2 billion, but that would represent a $706 million spike from the Trump administration request.
The Thursday budget deal was reportedly reached following weeks of negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Despite support from the Donald Trump administration, there was resistance by conservative Republicans. Only about a third of House GOP members, 65 of 197, voted for the package.
The package does not include specific spending levels for the Office of Environmental Management.
The Senate could vote on the caps deal next week, after the House leaves Washington for its annual August recess. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to produce any 2020 spending bills; if it waits until after the upper chamber’s scheduled August recess, it would have under three weeks to write, debate, and pass the bills, then iron out any differences with House appropriators.
If approved, the budget package could greatly reduce the chance of a federal budget shutdown this year.
“It’s very good news,” said Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), which represents local governments adjacent to Energy Department facilities.
Having a budget agreement is good and not having one is always bad, especially to ensure continued progress on nuclear cleanup, Kirshenberg said by telephone Thursday.
While passage of the budget deal would not eliminate the possibility of funding the government with a continuing resolution for fiscal 2020, the agencies have lived through many such CRs in the past, Kirshenberg added.
An industry official Friday generally agreed with Kirshenberg’s positive assessment, although he added he has not yet seen the final language for H.R. 3877, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019.
