Budget/Appropriations

"We are boxed in, which I don’t like,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.).

The full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved the first of 12 annual spending bills for 2014, a $73.3 billion measure funding military construction and veterans affairs programs.

The bill is the least controversial of the 12 annual bills and, reflecting that, it was approved on a voice vote.

The bill increases spending by $1.4 billion above the enact 2013 level. This comes out to about $2.4 billion more in spending compared to the post-sequestration level the government is currently operating on after automatic cuts came into effect on March 1. 

Democrats supported the bill but were adamantly opposed to an overall 2014 spending plan for all 12 bills that the GOP majority also adopted at the same markup.That plan has deep cuts to social programs to pay for increased defense spending. 

The veterans affairs bills makes an attempt to address an embarrassing backlog in veterans benefits claims.

It supports an increase of 94 claims processor and requires the VA to report monthly to Congress on the backlog. 

“They may as well get ready to be constantly harassed and frankly starved moneywise until they get this right,” committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who is running for Senate, offered an amendment to cut claims processor pay by 25 percent if a 25 percent reduction in the claims backlog is not reduced 180 days after Oct. 1.  He withdrew the amendment but committee leaders promised to work with him on the proposal as the bill comes to the House floor in early June.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), whose district contains a huge number of federal workers,  offered an amendment to end the three year pay freeze for federal workers covered by the bill. The amendment was defeated on a 23 to 25 vote with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) voting with Democrats. 

The bill, authored by Rep. Van Hollen, contains $181 billion in replacement deficit reduction over 10 years.

The Pentagon wants Congress to funnel funds toward expenses for the Afghanistan war and transportation.

The House Appropriations Committee moved its first spending bill Wednesday as the military construction and veterans affairs subpanel passed a $73.3 billion measure.

The appropriations bill is $1.4 billion above the funding level enacted in 2013 and $1.4 billion below President Obama’s 2014 budget request.

The measure provides $9.9 billion for military construction projects and $63.1 billion in discretionary funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs, an increase of $2.1 billion compared to last year’s levels.

The Topline: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Tuesday that the Pentagon would be furloughing most if its civilian workforce by up to 11 days this year.

Hagel made the announcement at the MArk Center in Alexandria, Va., where he struck an apologetic tone to the civilians he was speaking before. He began his speech by riffing on the times we live in — saying he was “not a dinosaur” in a reference to new technologies — before he delved into the furloughs.

Hagel said that the decision to furlough was not made lightly, and that it was only undertaken when there was nothing left to cut without jeopardizing national security.

“We’ve taken it as close to the line as we can, where we’re still capable of protecting this country and the country’s efforts around the world,” Hagel said at the town-hall event.

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President Obama's Office of Management and Budget has implemented technical adjustments called for by law that reduce the $85 billion indiscriminate sequester spending cuts to about $80 billion, administration and congressional sources said Monday. 

The $4.9 billion in changes come as a result of Congress enacting a full 2013 spending bill last month. That bill extended stopgap funding for most agencies but contained full appropriations titles for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and Veterans Affairs. 

Congress added money to some accounts but also cut other accounts below sequestration levels, which hit March 1.

Sens. Levin and Inhofe said "a concrete demonstration" of the cuts may be the only way to halt sequestration.

The Pentagon faces cuts of $41 billion in 2013 and another $52 billion in 2014, if the sequester isn't reversed.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that it was “literally impossible” for the Pentagon to incorporate $52 billion in cuts under sequestration in its 2014 budget.

Dempsey pushed back against criticism from Republicans, who have argued the Pentagon should have lived by the budget caps set by the sequester in the 2014 budget. The Pentagon requested a base budget in 2014 of $526 billion, $52 billion above the budget caps under sequestration.

Dempsey said that because sequestration didn’t take effect until March 1, the Pentagon wouldn’t have had the time to prepare a completely separate budget for that scenario.