The new House Appropriations Committee (HAC) chair on Sunday proposed four new bills that would fund areas of government shuttered since December, excluding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The bills, introduced by HAC chairwoman Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), would fund the following agencies through the end of fiscal year 2019: The Departments of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Services; Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies; Interior, Environment and related agencies; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development along with their related agencies. Lowey is also the new chair of the HAC-Defense subcommittee.
Those agencies’ funding has been frozen for over two weeks as part of a partial government shutdown as President Trump and Republican lawmakers have worked with senior Democratic to reach a deal on border wall funding in the fiscal year 2019 budget.
Lowey’s bills reflect the House’s efforts last week to separate DHS-related funding from other agencies involved in the shutdown. The new Democratic-led lower chamber passed two bills this past Thursday, one to re-open the Department of Homeland Security under a continuing resolution to maintain FY ’18 funding levels through Feb. 8, and one to fund other affected agencies through the end of FY ’19. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will not put those bills up for a vote as Trump has already indicated he would veto any bill that does not include $5.6 billion in border wall funding.
Lowey’s bills may similarly be halted before they reach the Senate floor. The House will first consider the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill “to ensure that hardworking Americans can receive their tax refunds on schedule,” Lowey said in a Sunday statement.
She noted that these four bills are “virtually identical” to bills that previously passed the Senate on a 92-6 vote on Aug. 1. The only changes are for “technical, conforming and necessary scorekeeping changes,” she added. The text is identical to the H.R. 21 bill passed by the House on Jan. 3, with the sole addition being language meant to ensure that federal workers furloughed during the shutdown receive pay.
“After we pass these four bills, the Senate should clear them and the President should sign them into law,” she added.
As of Monday, approximately 25 percent of the U.S. government has been affected by the government shutdown that began Dec. 21. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, outlined the impacts to government workers in a Jan. 3 statement.
More than 450,000 federal employees are currently working without pay, to include up to 88 percent of DHS personnel, he said. That includes 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and customs officers and 42,000 Coast Guard personnel. More than 380,000 federal employees have been furloughed, to include 16,700 NASA staff — about 96 percent of the agency’s personnel. More than 10,000 State Department personnel have also been furloughed.