June 17, 2013

Appropriations bills continue to move in both chambers this week with the Senate initiating its Fiscal 2014 markup cycle Tuesday with the Agriculture bill in subcommittee. That will be followed Thursday with a markup of the Military Construction- Veteran Affairs bill and full committee release of the FY14 spending allocations for each subcommittee. (The committee is using the pre-sequestration spending cap of $1.058 trillion, unlike the House appropriators who are marking up bills at the $967 billion level.) In the House this week, the Energy and Water bill will be marked up in subcommittee Tuesday and the Transportation-HUD bill on Wednesday. Because of the lower spending allocation in the House, the two bills are expected to be cut a combined 14 percent ($16 billion) from current funding.

The Energy and Water bill would cut renewable energy programs by 50 percent from current funding and the Energy Department’s ARPE-E program by 81 percent.  Science research is funded at $4.7 billion –a cut of $223 million. The bill contains $450 million for R&D focused on fossil energy sources and technology, and another $656 million for nuclear. To read the subcommittee report, click here or the committee summary click here.

To read the House committee report on for the FY14 Agriculture appropriations bill approved last Thursday, click here.

In other legislation, Senate floor debate continues this week on the immigration reform bill while the House focuses on the Agriculture authorization bill.