Congress is preparing to take up the massive $1.1 trillion spending bill unveiled by congressional appropriators Monday night, which funds agencies through the rest of the fiscal year, eases sequestration cuts and diminishes the threat of another government shutdown for at least another year.
While the deal is good news for some government agencies, others are poised to lose big.
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“As with any compromise, not everyone will like everything in this bill,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairperson Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), the bill’s authors said in a statement. “But in this divided government a critical bill such as this simply cannot reflect the wants of only one party,” the appropriators said in a statement.
Indeed, one of the clear losers in the deal is the president’s health care law, which would lose about $1 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, as well as another $10 million for the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
The Department of Homeland Security also stands to lose about $336 million—most of it coming from the embattled Transportation Security Administration, which has been accused of wasting billions of dollars on a screening program that is largely ineffective, according to the government auditors.
Other reductions include $224 million less for embassy security--- despite concerns after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans including Ambassador Christopher Stevens were killed.
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On the other side of the spectrum, agencies and programs that can consider this budget deal a win include Head Start, which suffered heavily under sequestration. The bill completely restores $1 billion in cuts. It also partially restores cuts to the National Institutes of Health for medical research, and increases funding for mental health programs by $173 million. The deal would also give workers a one percent pay increase and fund new programs to reduce sexual assault in the military, according to The Washington Post.
| Winners and Losers of the Spending Bill | ||
| Category | Difference From FY 2013 | Total For FY 2014 |
| Agriculture | +$350 Million | $20.9 Billion |
| Commerce/Justice/Science | +$1.4 Billion | $51.6 Billion |
| Defense | -------------- | $486.9 Billion |
| Energy/Water | +$777 Million | $34 Billion |
| Financial Services | +$603 Million | $21.8 Billion |
| Homeland Security | -$336 Million | $39.3 Billion |
| Interior and Environment | +$231 Million | $30.1 Billion |
| Labor/Health and Human Services | -$100 Million | $156.8 Billion |
| Legislative Branch | -$19 Million | $4.2 Billion |
| Military Construction/VA | +$1.4 Billion | $73.3 Billion |
| State/Foreign Operations | -$4.3 Billion | $49 Billion |
| Transportation/Housing and Urban Dev. | -$961 Million | $50.8Billion |
Other winners include the FBI, which would get a budget increase of $700 million, and the Social Security Administration, which gains $651 million more to make up for past budget cuts.
The bill would replace the continuing resolution currently funding the government. That CR expires on Wednesday at midnight, so Congress must pass a replacement bill before then in order to avoid a government shutdown. On Tuesday, the House passed a temporary bill to keep the government open through Saturday. The bill, which will move to the Senate, would give members three more days to review the massive spending measure.
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