House Passes Budget Deal, Senate Poised to Vote

Last week, the House passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 on a 284-149 vote and the Senate is expected to vote on—and pass—a two-year budget deal today. The deal now centers on questions of whether President Donald Trump will sign it; acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney recently said the president will sign it.

The deal would eliminate the spending caps for the final two years of sequestration imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, suspend the federal debt ceiling until July 31, 2021, and boost federal spending by $320 billion over two years with $77 billion in offsets. In FY 2020 and FY 2021 defense programs would receive $45 billion more than non-defense discretionary programs and the Overseas Contingency Operation would receive $156.5 billion.