House Appropriators Approve FY20 Homeland Funding
June 14, 2019 – The House Appropriations Committee on June 11 approved a $64 billion draft bill making appropriations for the Homeland Security Department for fiscal year 2020.
Capitol Hill Events – Week of June 17, 2019
Tuesday, June 18 – Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation – Subcommittee on Security – subcommittee hearing on drone security, focusing on enhancing innovation and mitigating supply chain risks (witness list here) – 2:30 p.m., SD-562 Dirksen. Tuesday, June 18 – House Rules – full committee hearing on terms for House…
Amendments Filed to FY20 Transportation Appropriations with the House Rules Committee
June 14, 2019 – This is a list of all the transportation-related amendments filed with the House Rules Committee that may or may not be offered to the FY 2020 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill.
Perspective: Infrastructure and “Investment” Spending in the Big Budget Picture
June 13, 2019 – How much money does the federal government currently spend on “infrastructure”? It’s a question that needs to be answered in order to put calls for increased infrastructure spending in perspective.
House Appropriators OK FY20 USDOT Budget in Drama-Free Markup
June 7, 2019 – The House Appropriations Committee on June 4 approved a $87.7 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Transportation, as part of an overall Transportation-Housing appropriations bill that passed by party-line vote of 29 yeas to 21 nays.
CBO Says Fair Value Accounting Would Greatly Increase Cost of TIFIA, WIFIA Loans
June 7, 2019 – A new report issued May 30 by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that if the federal government were to start using “fair value accounting” to estimate the “market risk” of federal loan programs, the cost to the government of making a TIFIA surface transportation loan would increase nearly fivefold – and the cost of making a loan under the new WIFIA water infrastructure loan program would increase twentyfive-fold.
Trends in Per Capita VMT
June 7, 2019 – Per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the United States is now at 9,880 miles per person, up for the fourth year in a row. But the trends in per capita VMT since 1981 have not been distributed evenly across all states.
Corps of Engineers Funding Moving as Part of First “Minibus” Appropriations Package
June 7, 2019 – The House of Representatives will begin floor consideration of the fiscal 2020 appropriations bill this week, starting with a five-bill “minibus” package based on the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (H.R. 2740). The Energy and Water Development appropriations bill, which includes the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers’ water resources program, has been incorporated as Division E of the package.
House FY20 Homeland Bill Approves Modest Increases in TSA, Coast Guard Operational Funding
June 6, 2019 – This week, the House Appropriations Committee released the text of its draft fiscal 2020 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, and the bill was approved by voice vote during a brief subcommittee markup session on June 5.
Capitol Hill Events – Week of June 10, 2019
Monday, June 10, 2019 – House Rules – full committee hearing on the first, five-bill “minibus” appropriations package that includes FY 2020 Energy and Water appropriations (bill text here) – 5:00 p.m., H-313, The Capitol. Tuesday, June 11, 2019 – House Appropriations – full committee markup of the draft FY2020…