February 20, 2019 – Do the final FY19 appropriations bills keep the promise of an additional $10 billion per year for infrastructure made in the February 2018 bipartisan budget deal?
February 15, 2019 – Yesterday, both chambers of Congress passed a $325 billion appropriations measure, which President Trump signed the bill into law at about 2 p.m. today, that will prevent any more lapse-of-appropriations government shutdowns until at least October 1.
February 15, 2019 – The final fiscal 2019 appropriations package that passed Congress yesterday appropriates a net $49.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (excluding the FEMA disaster relief fund and mandatory Coast Guard pay), a $1.7 billion increase over fiscal year 2018.
February 14, 2019 – At nine minutes to midnight last night, a $325 billion omnibus appropriations bill was introduced and will get votes in the House and Senate tonight and tomorrow, possibly averting another government shutdown.
February 1, 2019 – The five-week shutdown of large swaths of the federal government has ended, but hopes for finishing the appropriations process for fiscal year 2019 hinges on progress on the Homeland Security appropriations bill, now before a House-Senate conference committee.
January 31, 2019 – As predicted in ETW, the enactment of the continuing resolution that ended the government shutdown is forcing the Federal Highway Administration to take back $23 billion in highway spending authority from state DOTs.
January 25, 2019 -President Trump today reversed course and agreed to sign a short-term continuing appropriations resolution reopening the federal government while negotiations continue on homeland security funding and U.S.-Mexico border issues.
January 25, 2019 – As the partial lapse-of-appropriations government shutdown gets ready to enter its fifth week – and with today marking the second consecutive paycheck that many federal employees have missed – Congressional leaders appear to have made the first real progress yesterday in negotiating a possible end to the shutdown, after the U.S. Senate proved that neither the current Republican plan nor the current Democratic plan for ending the shutdown have the 60 votes necessary to pass.
January 24, 2019 – Tens of thousands of members of the U.S. Coast Guard continue to go without pay while the partial government shutdown drags on, with 8,000 civilian workers missing their second paycheck Friday and 42,000 active-duty service members set to miss theirs if the shutdown moves into February.
January 22, 2019 – Late last night, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby (R-AL), released the text of a 1,300-page appropriations measure that would end the month-long government shutdown, including immigration and border-related proposals outlined by President Trump over the weekend.
January 22, 2019 – Buried in the back of the omnibus FY19 appropriations bill released by Senate Republicans last night was a removing taking new appropriations out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund from the spending constraints of the Budget Control Act.
January 18, 2019 – The House and Senate have left town for the week, and Monday will mark the one-month mark of the partial, lapse-of-appropriations government shutdown that began on December 21. But President Trump and Congressional Democrats appear no closer to a deal ending the shutdown than they were one or two weeks ago.
January 17, 2019 – House Democrats, in yet another attempt to force members to vote on a different way to end the ongoing federal government lapse-of-appropriations shutdown, have posted online the text of a bipartisan omnibus appropriations agreement negotiated last year – while Republicans still controlled both chambers – that they plan to bring up for a vote in the House next week.
January 11, 2019 – The partial lapse-of-appropriations shutdown that began at midnight on December 21 is now three weeks old, but a pivotal milestone was reached this morning when civilian federal workers who are either furloughed or else being forced to work under the life/safety exception missed their first scheduled paycheck.
January 11, 2019 – Next week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to consider a $12.1 billion package of emergency disaster relief appropriation (H.R. 268).
January 9, 2019 – Yesterday, the Federal Highway Administration issued a notice giving the 50 state DOTs and the District of Columbia an extra $30 billion in obligation authority to start new federal-aid highway projects, but warned them that if a new short-term continuing appropriations resolution is enacted, they will have to take most of that money back for the time being.
January 4, 2019 – The partial shutdown of the federal government, which includes a furlough of over 20,000 employees of the U.S. Department of Transportation, will enter its third week tomorrow with no end in sight. Yesterday, the new House Democratic majority passed two appropriations measures to restart the government (see details below), but the White House promptly issued a veto threat, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is refusing to take those up in the Senate until Democrats and President Trump reach agreement on a bill that can gain his signature.
December 31, 2018 – Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee late this afternoon posted online the text of a proposed omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2019 that they plan on bringing up for a vote in the House on Thursday, January 3, shortly after they retake the majority of the House of Representatives at noon on that day.
December 21, 2018 – The House and Senate have adjourned for the evening, and can’t return until at least noon tomorrow, which will be twelve hours after large portions of the federal government – including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security – run out of annual appropriations at midnight tonight.
December 21, 2018 – The continuing resolution passed by the House last night, funding the government through February 8, 2019, added $5 billion for funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, but it also added $7.8 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for the effects of those disasters. Of that amount, about $2.7 billion is for transportation and infrastructure accounts, including $1.65 billion for the Federal Highway Administration emergency relief program.