President Trump and congressional leaders announced an agreement this week that would raise budget caps and the debt ceiling while setting overall spending levels for the next two fiscal years.
The agreement would specify top-line spending levels for the next two years, suspend the debt ceiling until the end of July 2021. Those spending levels specified would be an increase by nearly $50 billion next fiscal year above current levels.
If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump before October 1 – the end of the fiscal year – the agreement would mark the end of the 2011 Obama-era Budget Control Act. That law set strict spending caps enforced with automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester. A succession of budget deals since 2014 have waived those caps.
Largely negotiated between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the agreement would lift those caps again and allow the entire Budget Control Act to expire in 2021. Earlier this year, Secretary Mnuchin had warned that the government could exceed its borrowing limit as soon as early September, before members return from recess.
The House of Representatives on Thursday easily passed the legislation, by a 284-149 vote. The Senate is scheduled to approve the bill next week.
In addition to passing the agreement, Congress must pass all 2020 appropriations bills before October 1, the end of the fiscal year. The House has already passed all of its appropriations The House begins its six-week August recess on July 26 and the Senate recesses on August 2. That leaves three weeks in September for both chambers to pass all 12 appropriations bills.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) told reporters Tuesday that he plans to divvy up fiscal 2020 appropriations among 12 individual spending bills, setting top-line budget allocations so subcommittee markups can begin after August recess.
