House Expects to Pass 2021 Budget Bills by End of July

Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) budget conversations, including those around funding Medicaid, are likely to catapult to the foreground in the fall, when Congress confronts federal funding deadlines. As such, we are sharing this reporting by Politico Pro so that our members can stay informed and prepare for how they’ll advocate during the process.

“House appropriators will hold subcommittee and full committee markups on fiscal 2021 spending bills during the weeks of July 6 and July 13, with floor votes as soon as the weeks of July 20 and July 27, Chairwoman Nita Lowey [D-NY] told colleagues in a letter Thursday.”

“The lower chamber had originally planned to mark up and pass all of the fiscal 2021 spending bills by the end of this month. But the coronavirus pandemic has dominated the legislative agenda, hampering committee work and sidelining lawmakers in their districts.

The House isn’t scheduled to vote again until June 30, [House Majority Whip Steny] Hoyer [[D-MD] announced last week. Subcommittee and full committee markups on appropriations bills won’t begin until the end of June and beginning of July, taking a backseat to Covid-19 oversight hearings, the Maryland Democrat said.

A spokesperson for the House Appropriations Committee told POLITICO last month that markups won’t begin until Congress can agree on another round of pandemic aid. And bipartisan negotiations on the next package have yet to begin in earnest.

The Senate, meanwhile, plans to mark up several appropriations bills toward the end of June and the remainder after the July Fourth recess. It had originally planned to mark up almost all of the bills before the July Fourth recess.”