Lawmakers are still trying to work out a compromise to raise spending caps that could hamper the appropriations process but have a back-up plan, CQ reported.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) confirmed that appropriators may base the fiscal year 2020 budget on current spending levels.
“We might not have any choice,” Shelby said, according to CQ.
But there is still a push for a deal to raise or do away with spending caps, as has happened in the past.
“Without such an agreement, we will face great difficulty in crafting a bipartisan authorization bill and will be hard pressed to provide the Defense Department with another on time appropriation,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee said, according to the Washington Examiner.
To skirt spending caps, the Administration moved part of its $750 billion defense request to the cap-exempt overseas war fund, which Democrats have criticized.
DOD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann
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