The House of Representatives continues to advance spending bills for Fiscal Year 2020, which begins on October 1. Committee-approved appropriations bills have been packaged together for consideration by the full chamber this week. The first set includes funding for the Departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and State. A second package, including funding for NSF, EPA, NEH, and Transportation among others will soon follow. As posted on May 16, the bills include strong support for research and education programs.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Senate leaders are seeking an agreement on top-line spending caps and the nation's debt ceiling before advancing their own spending bills for the coming year. Absent a new agreement on the top-line spending cap, deep cuts would be required across the government in order to bring spending in line with the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). The BCA put in place the sequestration policy that Congress has repeatedly set aside when faced with prospect of making deep cuts to agencies/programs for the coming fiscal year. However, no plan has emerged to bypass sequestration in FY20.