Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas) confer during a markup of a NASA authorization bill Feb. 4. Credit: X @sciencedems
Appropriators, like fans of hard-luck sports teams, say every year that this year will be different. That this will be the year that “regular order” returns to the appropriations process, where individual spending bills are passed by the House and Senate and reconciled in time to become law before the new fiscal year begins.
This is, once again, not that year. House appropriators have worked through a series of spending bills, including a commerce, justice and science (CJS) bill that rejects many of the budget cuts to NASA proposed by the White House in April. However, conflicts over other legislation make it unclear when the full House will take up those spending bills.
Senate appropriators, meanwhile, twice postponed in June the markup of its CJS bill, once because of disputes over Justice Department provisions in the bill and again when a key senator, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), fell ill. That has delayed consideration of the legislation until at least mid-July.
Those problems and a tight calendar — Congress will be off in August for summer recess and again in October in the runup to the November midterm elections — likely mean another year of continuing resolutions and omnibus spending packages. It also will make it difficult to pass other legislation not as pressing as appropriations bills.
