House Approves Two-Year Budget Deal, Senate Expected to Concur

This week, the House approved - by a vote of of 332-94 - a two-year budget agreement that was negotiated by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) and Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The agreement sets overall levels for discretionary spending for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 and 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. The next step in the process is for House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) to agree on how to divide the $1.012 trillion in discretionary budget authority for fiscal year 2014 amongst each of the twelve appropriations subcommittees. Each subcommittee will then determine how their portion of the funds is to be distributed to different programs within its jurisdiction. These determinations will then become part of an omnibus FY14 appropriations law to be enacted by Jan. 15. The transportation funding portion will likely maintain highway and transit funding at MAP-21 levels but discretionary programs like TIGER grants are expected to be cut or eliminated.