Agriculture The House Agriculture Committee met on Wednesday to mark up this year’s farm bill (H.R. 1947), voting 36-10 to approve the legislation.  The measure would trim spending by about $20 billion more than a Senate version of the bill that advanced Tuesday, but the Congressional Budget Office said savings could near $40 billion if [...]

Agriculture House Republicans released their newly drafted farm bill on Friday, claiming nearly $40 billion in savings over the next decade, much of it from food stamps but also reflecting a major rewrite of commodity programs for producers. Senate Democrats introduced their own farm bill Thursday evening, in preparation for back-to-back markups next Tuesday and [...]

Budget Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he still wants to work on a broader sequester replacement bill and suggested simultaneous votes on his plan (S. 788) to suspend the automatic cuts under the 2011 debt deal (P.L. 112-25) and a GOP alternative.  Reid’s measure would suspend government wide cuts under the sequester for the [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup Appropriations Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) restated her intentions to ignore sequestration when writing FY14 spending bills. This move will likely cause a disagreement with House appropriators, who will use a $967 billion top line as required by the sequester in writing their spending bills. Mikulski stated at a [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup Appropriations The Senate on Wednesday voted 73-26 to approve a $984 billion continuing resolution (H.R. 933) that will keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year on September 30.  The House quickly passed the measure on Thursday, and is now headed to the President’s desk for signature. The [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup Appropriations Senators were unable to reach an agreement on a FY13 stopgap spending bill this week after nearly 100 amendments were filed.  The Senate will return Monday to continue work on a finite list of amendments to avert the cloture vote on the bill. Senators are considering proposals to an underlying [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup   Appropriations The House on Wednesday voted 267-151 to pass a six-month stopgap spending bill (H.R. 933) that sets out money for defense and veterans programs.  The measure would freeze existing appropriations levels for most accounts and set total discretionary spending at $984 billion after across-the-board cuts that began March 1. [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup Agriculture Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told reporters on Thursday that the agriculture cuts included in the Democratic sequester alternative would save money and remedy a farm bill extension that left important programs with little or no funding. The agriculture proposal would produce a net savings of $27.5 billion over 10 [...]

J.R. Reskovac Sarah Strup Budget The Senate on Thursday voted 64-34 to pass H.R. 325, a bill providing a short-term suspension of the government’s borrowing limit Before clearing the House-backed legislation and sending to the President for signature, senators rejected several amendments mostly aimed at ending government shutdown standoffs and calling for spending reductions.  The amendments [...]