09.12.23

Senator Whitehouse’s Statement on Adjusting Topline Spending Limit for Minibus

Washington, D.C.—Today, consistent with the bipartisan agreement to avert default, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, adjusted the topline spending limit for the Appropriations Committee to allow this week’s minibus bill to proceed. 

The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed in June of this year, lifted the debt limit and established spending caps for the next two fiscal years. It allows for extra funding above the caps on defense and nondefense spending if the spending falls into specified categories and meets conditions agreed to on a bipartisan, bicameral basis. The minibus, which has been proposed in the Senate, contains $11 billion in emergency funding that is fully consistent with the bipartisan debt limit deal. By filing this statement, Chairman Whitehouse is allowing the Senate to proceed with appropriations in accordance with the debt limit deal.

Today’s action allows Congress to spend $62 billion in the upcoming fiscal year over and above the statutory spending caps for disaster relief, program integrity, and other categories that are supported on a broad, bipartisan basis. In order for Congress to spend these funds, the Budget Committee Chairman must first increase the Appropriations Committee’s spending limit, as anticipated by the bipartisan debt deal. Other categories of funding eligible for an adjustment are established by law, such as wildfire suppression and emergency funding.

This evening, Chairman Whitehouse entered the following statement into the Congressional Record:

Mr. President, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the FRA, which Congress passed three months ago, represented a bipartisan agreement. It resolved a manufactured default crisis, avoided economic catastrophe, and set funding levels for the upcoming year.  Pursuant to section 121 of that Act, I previously filed on June 21 budgetary aggregates and committee allocations for fiscal year 2024.  Today, I am adjusting those levels to account for Senate amendment 1092 to H.R. 4366, the proposed package making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024.  This first package includes the fiscal year 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies; and Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bills.

Section 251 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended by the FRA, establishes statutory limits on discretionary funding levels for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 and allows for adjustments to those limits.  Sections 302 and 314(a) of the Congressional Budget Act allow the Chairman of the Budget Committee to revise the allocations, aggregates, and levels consistent with those adjustments. 

Senate amendment 1092 is eligible for an adjustment.  Division C, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2024, includes $10.8 billion of budget authority and $8.3 billion of outlays that are designated as emergency funding.  The emergency funding in this division is consistent with the bipartisan agreement tied to the enactment of the FRA.

In addition, the Senate Appropriations Committee has reported eight other bills that include funding eligible for an adjustment.  I am also making those adjustments in today’s filing.

In total, I am revising the allocation to the Appropriations Committee by $62.2 billion of budget authority and $23.8 billion of outlays.  Excluding off-budget amounts, I am revising the budgetary aggregates by $61.9 billion of budget authority and $23.5 billion of outlays.