The Budget Agreement to Raise the Caps Supports Critical Investments for the American People

As you’ve likely seen, Congressional leadership and the Trump administration July 22 released The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (H.R. 3877), an agreement to raise budget caps for FY 2020 and FY 2021, and to suspend the debt limit until July 31, 2021. The House Budget Committee has also published a one-pager and section-by-section.

The bill would:

  • Revise the nondefense discretionary (NDD) spending cap in FY 2020 to $621.5 billion (which would represent a $24.5 billion increase over the final FY 2019 spending bill and a $79.5 billion increase over the BCA caps in statute for FY 2020) + $2.5 billion for Census + $8 billion in nondefense OCO  
    • Avoid a cut of $55 billion to NDD for FY 2020
    • Fall below the $631 billion cap “deemed” by the House to draft FY 2020 spending bills, which included a $2 billion increase for NIH
  • Revise the NDD spending cap in FY 2021 to $626.5 billion (which would be $71.5 billion more than the BCA cap in statute for FY 2021) + $8 billion in nondefense OCO
  • Include $77.4 billion in offsets by extending sequestration to mandatory programs and customs fees
  • Revise the defense spending cap to $666.5 billion for FY 2020 (+$19.5 billion over FY 2019) and $671.5 billion for FY 2021
  • Includes an agreement on appropriations bills: “Congressional leaders and the administration agree that, relative to the FY 2019 regular appropriations Acts, there will be no poison pills, additional new riders, additional CHIMPS, or other changes in policy or conventions that allow for higher spending levels, or any non-appropriations measures unless agreed to on a bipartisan basis by the four leaders with the approval of the President.”