Congress Reaches Two-year Budget Deal

Measure Clears Way for Action on AGC Legislative Priorities   This week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) and Senate Budget Chairperson Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a two year budget deal. The budget deal, which passed the House by a vote of 332-94, sets overall levels for discretionary spending for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. It also partially mitigates the impact of the across-the-board sequestration cuts for both years.  The Senate is expected to vote on the deal next week before adjourning.  Specifically, the budget deal sets spending caps for 2014 and 2015 at $1.012 and $1.014 trillion, respectively.  It also uses $85 billion in offsets to provide $63 billion in sequester relief and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. Although the budget deal is small in scale, it provides four promising signs for AGC priorities. First, it creates agreed-upon budget numbers for the House and Senate. Such budget certainty minimizes the threat of a government shutdown in January that could adversely impact contractors working on federal projects. It also increases the chances of Congress passing an all-agency spending bill for fiscal year2014, instead of a year-long continuing resolution that would prohibit new federal construction project starts.  The budget deal will also likely lead to a more traditional appropriations process for fiscal year 2015.  That means that Congress can actually analyze federal spending priorities and make difficult decisions to eliminate bad programs and continue good programs. The traditional appropriations process is the only time Congress performs a line-by-line analysis of every federal program, which has not happened since 2006. The detailed analysis also provides a forum for allowing Congress to have a say over regulations proposed by the Obama administration. Third, it establishes the fact that Congress can work in a bipartisan manner.  Every item on the AGC agenda – whether it is tax reform, immigration reform, entitlement reform or a long-term highway authorization – is contingent upon bipartisan agreements in both the House and Senate. Fourth, the deal recognizes the need for government programs to be paid for and it solidly states that those who benefit from government pensions should pay a little more for their retirement security and those who fly should pay a higher “user fee” for their aviation security . For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.