Advocacy Update

Congress Reaches Agreement on a Two-Year Budget Deal In late July, U.S. Congressional leaders and the White House came to an agreement on a two-year deal that would suspend the debt ceiling until July 31, 2021 and lift spending caps on discretionary spending, avoiding automatic spending cuts imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act. The…

House Passes Minibus Spending Package On June 19, the House passed a minibus spending package (H.R. 2740). The spending package, which passed 226 to 203, includes the FY 2020 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs); Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS); Energy and Water; and Defense appropriations bills. None of…

House Debates the First of Several FY 2020 Spending Packages Last Wednesday, the House took up the first of several spending packages to fund federal agencies and programs in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. The first “minibus” is an almost $1 trillion package that includes appropriations for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS); State…

Washington, DC (June 11, 2019) – Yesterday, Global Health Council (GHC) applauded U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Chris Coons (D-DE) who led a bipartisan group of 22 Senators to reintroduce the Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2019. This bipartisan legislation aims to accelerate the reduction of preventable child, newborn, and maternal deaths,…

U.S. Appropriations Update House Appropriations Committee Marks Up SFOPs bill In mid-May, the House Appropriations Committee marked up the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPs) bill, moving it a step closer to a vote on the House floor. The bill provides $54.6 billion for SFOPs with a breakdown of $48.4 billion in base funding…

FY 2020 Appropriations It has been a busy two weeks on Capitol Hill as the House began work on Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriations bills, including State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) and Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Programs (LHHS), and released the 302(b) allocations, which set the spending levels for individual…

Congress Returns to Capitol Hill Members of Congress return to Capitol Hill today after a two-week recess. Prior to heading home, the House of Representatives passed a deeming resolution setting the topline discretionary spending amount at $1.3 trillion and allowing work on the appropriations bills to begin. House appropriators will begin marking up appropriations bills…

House Votes on Resolution Setting Top Line Spending Amount Spending caps, also known as budget caps, were established in the Budget Control Act of 2011 to limit federal spending and avoid debt. Since then, Congress has voted to lift these spending caps to avoid sequestration, or mandatory cuts to accounts if appropriated funding exceeds the…