With the its January 23 passage of H.R. 325, the No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives has separated the issues of raising the debt ceiling and cutting spending. The bill would suspend the debt limit through May 18, providing Congress with an additional three months to negotiate a second increase to the debt limit in 2013.
The House bill also would require Congress to pass a concurrent budget resolution by April 15, the deadline by which, if Congress has not passed a budget resolution, the Committees on Appropriations are free to craft appropriations bills. If either House of Congress fails to pass a concurrent resolution, salaries of Members of Congress would be escrowed until such a resolution was passed. In the 112th Congress, House Republicans criticized the Senate for not passing a budget resolution, which the Senate contends it did through passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011.
The debt ceiling bill passed the House with bipartisan support. The Senate will now decide whether to take up H.R. 325.
Congress still must address the sequestering of discretionary funds scheduled for March 1 in order to avoid across-the-board cuts to federal agencies, including HUD and the USDA (see Memo, 1/18). Without the threat of fiscal collapse posed by reaching the debt ceiling, it may be difficult for lawmakers to negotiate a deal to prevent spending cuts while still attaining Congress’s desired deficit reduction goals.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on the Budget, sent a letter and memorandum to Senate colleagues on January 24 analyzing the “state of play” in the fiscal landscape. The letter marks the Senator’s first steps in crafting a budget resolution. Regarding the sequester and a broader deficit reduction deal, Senator Murray concludes, “we need to fight to make sure any budget deal we make is balanced, fair for the middle class, and calls on the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates that postponing sequester implementation from January 2 to March 1 would result in 5.1% cuts to non-defense discretionary programs for the remainder of 2013. Both HUD and USDA Rural Housing programs fall into the non-defense discretionary spending category.
The Non-Defense Discretionary (NDD) Funding Coalition is circulating a letter to Members of Congress, urging them to avert the sequester and take an “approach to deficit reduction that does not include further cuts to discretionary programs,” as “[a]dditional cuts in discretionary programs would put the health, education, safety, and security of all Americans at risk.” In July, the NDD coalition sent a similar letter to Members, signed by 3,000 organizations. NLIHC urges all national, state, and local organizations to sign this letter to show support for the protection of HUD and USDA Rural Housing programs.
While Members of Congress negotiate sequestration, they will also have to address final spending amounts for FY13. The six-month continuing resolution (CR) currently funding federal agencies at FY12 funding levels expire on March 27. Appropriators are reportedly prepared to finalize FY13 spending bills once other fiscal issues are addressed.
Even as FY13 remains undecided, Members of Congress began conversations about FY14 funding. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Patrick Toomey (R-PA) announced plans to reintroduce a bill that would permanently ban earmarks, similar to their bill in the 112th Congress, which received support of nearly half the Senate.
Click here to view H.R. 325.
Click here to viewSenator Murray’s letter.
Click here to viewCBPP’s estimates.
Click here to sign onto the NDD letter.