On February 14, 2019, the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved an FY 2019 omnibus appropriations measure (H.J. Res. 31) providing funding through the end of the fiscal year for seven appropriations bills. The President signed the bill on February 15. Had the bill not been signed on February 15, another partial government shutdown would have begun.
For the first five months of the fiscal year these departments and agencies have been funded at FY 2018 levels. The appropriations bills in the omnibus measure are: Interior, Environment and Related Agencies; Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-Science; Financial Services and General Government; State-Foreign Operations; Transportation-Housing and Urban Development; and Homeland Security.
We attach the final FY 2019 funding charts for Indian Affairs (which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education) and for the Indian Health Service (IHS). Congress rejected the funding cuts requested by the Administration. The final bill is $17.4 million over the FY 2018 enacted level for Indian Affairs and $266.4 million over the enacted level for the IHS. Detailed General Memoranda on the final FY 2019 appropriations for Indian Affairs and the IHS are forthcoming.
The experience of the recent 35-day partial government shutdown and yet another year of funding via Continuing Resolutions has generated increased interest in providing advance appropriations for tribal programs. Bills on this topic have been introduced by Senator Udall (D-NM; S 229) and Representative McCollum (D-MN, HR 1128) regarding selected Indian Affairs and IHS programs and HR 1135 by Representative Young (R-AK) concerning the IHS.
We expect the Administration to release an overall FY 2020 budget proposal the week of March 11 with more details to come the following week.
Please let us know if we may provide additional information regarding appropriations matters.
