Prepared by Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
December 17, 2015
This week, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees concluded negotiations on an omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 2029) to fund federal government agencies for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2016. The final bill provides significant increases to federal investments in research, education, and healthcare programs important to research universities and non-profit research institutions. The House and Senate are expected to vote on and pass the bill over the next few days, and the President will then sign the bill into law.
The bill includes funding for all 12 annual appropriations bills and upholds the $1.067 trillion spending cap for FY 2016 agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The two-year budget agreement enacted in November 2015 increased discretionary spending in FY 2016 by $50 billion, divided equally between defense and non-defense spending. The final bill includes $548 billion in defense spending and $518 billion in non-defense spending. The bill also provides $74 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations funding. The budget agreement averted a government shutdown and created a path forward for the Republican-controlled Congress to negotiate a final spending bill with Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration.