Lawmakers are still trying to work out a compromise to raise spending caps that could hamper the appropriations process but have a back-up plan, CQ reported.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) confirmed that appropriators may base the fiscal year 2020 budget on current spending levels.
“We might not have any choice,” Shelby said, according to CQ.
But there is still a push for a deal to raise or do away with spending caps, as has happened in the past.
“Without such an agreement, we will face great difficulty in crafting a bipartisan authorization bill and will be hard pressed to provide the Defense Department with another on time appropriation,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee said, according to the Washington Examiner.
To skirt spending caps, the Administration moved part of its $750 billion defense request to the cap-exempt overseas war fund, which Democrats have criticized.
DOD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann
In Our Communities
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed legislation that would have limited foreign investor ownership of land near military installations, WIBW reported. Kelly cited constitutional concerns with some of the bill’s provisions. “If the legislature is serious about...
