2017 End of Year Congressional Funding Update
December 22, 2017: 
 
Congress has now adjourned for the holidays without fulfilling one of its most basic functions: funding the federal government for the current fiscal year. Yesterday, both houses passed (and the President will sign) a Continuing Resolution (CR) that will continue to provide for government services at FY17 levels through January 19, 2018. The House also passed a $81 billion disaster-related emergency supplemental appropriation for floods and fires – but the Senate recessed without addressing this issue.

When Congress returns on January 3, its principal order of business will be to seek an agreement on raising the caps on spending for FY18 and FY19. If that is successful by January 19, the Appropriations Committees of both houses will then seek to reach agreement on their FY18 bills as they will know how much money they have to spend. However, that process is expected to take up to four weeks, necessitating yet another CR into February, leading to an Omnibus Appropriations bill.

Based on current estimates, the enactment of such a bill, combined with the enormous revenue loss that will be caused by the recently passed tax cut bill, the need to finalize the disaster relief bill and several other factors will exacerbate the deficit into the range of $1.0 trillion. And, we believe that will then trigger calls for large scale reductions in both discretionary and mandatory spending for FY19.

2017 was a hard-fought and difficult year. 2018 will likely be even more so. Our successes in fighting off such ill-advised policy and budget recommendations such as the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health by 22 percent will have to be replicated again in 2018. 

SGIM will continue to closely monitor all these issues and keep you informed on upcoming developments.  For more information about SGIM's advocacy efforts, please visit the advocacy website .
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