A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1156478
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE The House and Senate are on recess for the month of August. Both chambers are expected to return to Washington, D.C., the week of Sept. 9. That will leave just 13 workdays to fund the federal government before the Sept. 30 deadline. BUDGET DEAL ENACTED At the end of July, congressional leaders and the Trump administration came to an agreement on a bipartisan budget deal to raise spending caps for federal government funding and extend the Treasury Department's borrowing authority to avoid debt default. Under the terms of the legislation (H.R. 3877), existing spending caps will be raised on discretionary spending by $321 billion over two years and the debt ceiling will be raised until July 30, 2021. Raising the spending caps paves the way for Congress to fund federal agencies before the Sept. 30, 2019 deadline and avoid a shutdown. The deal also ends the threat of sequestration, which otherwise would have mandated across-the-board spending cuts to both defense and domestic programs. The House passed the budget deal on Thursday, July 25 before recessing for August; the Senate followed suit in passing the budget deal on Thursday, Aug. 1, and President Trump signed that deal into law on Friday, Aug. 2. Shutdown Scenario: Enactment of the budget deal is a very positive development for NATCA. However, even though the legislation has been enacted into law, a number of critical steps remain in the legislative process in order to avoid a government shutdown. With the raise in spending caps, Congress and the Administration must now come to an agreement on funding for federal agencies through the annual appropriations bills or through a continuing resolution (CR) before Sept. 30, in order to avoid a shutdown. If annual appropriations bills or a CR is not agreed to, a government shutdown would occur on Oct. 1. See below for more information on the current status of appropriations. Debt Ceiling Deadline: The budget deal raises the debt ceiling until July 30, 2021. The "debt ceiling" or "debt limit" is the limit set on the amount of money that a government may borrow. If Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling, the federal government would have defaulted on its debt, the consequences of which would have been unprecedented. The debt ceiling deadline was a central component to the budget negotiations. DEATH OF SEQUESTRATION Sequestration (mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts), is officially dead as spending caps were raised through Fiscal Year 2021, which was the final year of sequestration. Without Congressional action before Sept. 30, sequestration would have returned for FY 2020, forcing spending cuts to both defense and domestic programs. Sequestration was originally enacted when spending levels were set in the Budget Control Act (Public Law 112-25) to cut federal dollars across the board to reduce the federal deficit, but Congress has raised the spending caps in recent years to avoid the sequester cuts. NATCA Advocacy to End Sequestration: Since sequestration was established in the Budget Control Act, NATCA has been a leading voice in opposing the arbitrary and damaging cuts of sequestration on air traffic control, the National Airspace System, and NATCA members. Notably, in 2013, NATCA led the legislative efforts for enactment of H.R. 1765, which put an end to the April 2013 FAA furloughs of air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals. The furloughs occurred as a result of the spending cuts mandated by sequestration. The sequester cuts to the FAA Operations budget that