The House Appropriations Committee unveiled a peculiar budget bill this week that would provide permanent 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other agencies including the Department of Energy funded at 2017 levels through Jan. 19.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest of the federal government, is still funded at 2017 levels under a stopgap spending bill called a continuing resolution that expires Dec. 22.
The latest continuing resolution would protect both military and civilian budgets from automatic across-the-board spending cuts that would otherwise begin in January because federal spending is above the level prescribed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
While the House can pass the new continuing resolution on a party-line vote, the bill will need some Democrat votes in the Senate. Democratic leaders on the Hill have said this month that they want to fund domestic as well as military programs in any new budget bill.
Under this week’s continuing resolution, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, manager of U.S. nuclear warhead programs, would again go without the roughly $1-billion raise the Donald Trump administration requested in May for fiscal year 2018.
The federal government’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
