WASHINGTON, D.C. – A hyper-partisan political climate, as reflected by the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and the start of presidential primaries, reduces the chances of timely passage of appropriations bills to fund the government for fiscal 2021, issue watchers said last week.
The Energy Department and other federal agencies are likely to be funded by short-term continuing resolutions once fiscal 2020 ends Sept. 30, according to congressional staffers, consultants, and government affairs specialists who spoke on two panels at the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) annual meeting. No long-term funding is apt to occur until a potential “lame duck” session after the November elections, they said.
There also seemed to be consensus that flat funding would be the best-case scenario for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, which received almost $7.5 billion for fiscal 2020. The figure represents “the biggest number I’ve ever seen at EM,” said Colin Jones, Jacobs vice president and general manager, in introducing a panel of congressional staffers on Jan. 30.
With the administration expected to seek spending for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration above its current level of $16.7 billion, the nuclear cleanup office could get squeezed, the observers agreed. “A huge weapons number means downward pressure on EM,” said one staffer from the House of Representatives.
The Environmental Management office could get “whacked harder than usual,” said a Senate staffer. “We don’t think we are going to have a ton to work with” in fiscal 2021.
The White House is scheduled Monday to issue its latest budget proposal for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. The Congress has often increased funding above White House requests in the past. For example, the Trump administration proposed $6.5 billion for the Environmental Management office and its 16 nuclear cleanup sites, before lawmaker eventually added nearly $1 billion more.
Passage of major legislation is likely to be “swallowed alive” by campaign politics – both presidential and congressional – by June or July, Bechtel Vice President and Manager of Government Affairs Bob DeGrasse said Jan. 31. The entire process could be overcome by the campaign season as early as this month, following conclusion of the impeachment of President Donald Trump and the State of the Union speech.
Lawmakers can deliver some surprises, said Tim Smith, president of Washington, D.C., advocacy firm Governmental Strategies Inc. Congress in December did pass fiscal 2020 appropriations for the entire government “right in the middle of an impeachment,” he said. However, that also came only after two continuing resolutions that kept the government running through Dec. 20.
“How things unfold in the next week and a half,” on how each party responds to the impeachment and the president’s State of Union, will influence the legislative atmosphere in coming months, said Mary Louise Wagner, a consultant who has worked as a Democratic staff director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and as a special adviser at DOE under former Secretary Ernest Moniz.
“We are looking at a CR,” Wagner said.
DeGrasse characterized 2019 as “ragged, regular order,” while 2020 will likely be all about the election.
