{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr5895-115/featured_energy-and-water-legislative-branch-and-military-construction-and-veterans-affairs-appropriations-act-2019-1536788704.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr5895-115/featured_large_energy-and-water-legislative-branch-and-military-construction-and-veterans-affairs-appropriations-act-2019-1536788704.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr5895-115.png"},"introduced_on":"2018-05-21","title_override":"$147 Billion “Minibus”: FY2019 Funding for Veterans, Energy & Water, and Congress","summary_override":"

(Updated September 12, 2018) This bill would serve as a “minibus” appropriations package containing $147.576 billion in fiscal year 2019 funding for three of the 12 appropriations categories — Energy & Water, Military Construction & Veterans Affairs, and the Legislative Branch. It was amended from its original form by the Senate, after the House passed its own version of the minibus. The current summary reflects the bill as reported by the conference committee, and a breakdown of its major provisions can be found below.

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION & VETERANS AFFAIRS

This section of the bill would provide $98.1 billion in FY2019 funding, up $5.3 billion from the prior year.

Veterans Affairs

This section would authorize FY2019 mandatory spending at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) and would provide $86.5 billion in discretionary funding for FY2019, an increase of $5 billion from the year prior.

VA Medical Care: $72.3 billion would support medical treatment and healthcare for the VA’s approximately 9.3 million enrolled patients. Of the total, $8.6 billion would be for mental health; $400 million for opioid misuse prevention and treatment; $206 million for suicide prevention; and $270 for rural health initiatives.

Additionally, this section would provide:

$7.5 billion for veterans homelessness programs;
$3 billion for claims processing to ensure that staffing and resources are utilized to reduce wait times and the backlog of disability appeals;
$1.8 billion for major and minor construction;
$75.6 billion in advance FY2020 appropriations and $121.3 billion in FY2020 advance mandatory funding.

Military Construction

Funding for military construction would total $10.3 billion for FY2019, up $241 million from the year prior. Of the total, $921 million would go to Overseas Contingency Operations projects and the European Reassurance Initiative.

Specifically, this section of the bill would provide:

$1.6 billion for military family housing, up $173 million from the prior year including construction for nine housing projects.
$352 million for military medical facilities.
$267 million for safety improvements and infrastructure work at four overseas military schools.
$465 million to support construction needs of the National Guard and Reserve forces.
$171 million for the NATO Security Investment Program.

ENERGY & WATER

This section of the bill would provide $44.64 billion in funding for FY2019 energy and water programs, an increase of $1.44 billion from the year prior.

Nuclear Security: Funding would total $15.23 billion, up $560 million from the prior year. This would include: $11.1 billion for nuclear weapon safety and readiness; and $1.79 billion for maintaining naval nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers and submarines.

Energy Programs: A total of $13.5 billion would be provided, up $554 million above the prior year, increases energy research toward an “all-of-above” solution to American energy independence.

Nuclear energy research & development would total $1.2 billion, up $108 million from FY18.
Fossil energy research & development would total $740 million, up $13 million from the year prior.

Environmental Cleanup: Funding would total $7.2 billion for DOE environmental management activities, up $56 million from the prior year. This would include $6 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup to continue remediation of sites contaminated by past nuclear weapons production such as Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Idaho, and other DOE sites.

Additionally, this section would provide:

$7 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, up $172 million from the prior year, to fund the Corps water resources infrastructure projects.
$6.6 billion for the DOE Office of Science, up $325 million from the year prior, which would support basic science research, development of high-performance computing systems, and next generation clean energy sources.
$1.57 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation to manage, develop, and protect the water resources of Western states.

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

This section of the bill would provide $4.836 billion in annual funding for the offices of members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, the support agencies of Congress, security and police forces, services for visitors, and Capitol operations and maintenance. The pay freeze for members of Congress would remain in effect, while each member’s office would receive $20,000 annually to offer paid internships.

Capitol Police: A total of $456.3 million would be provided to the Capitol Police, an increase of $29.8 million, to address concerns regarding security in the Capitol complex and member security off-campus. It’d provide for an increase in officer and civilian staffing, provide some lifecycle replacement for equipment, and allow for continued training.

Architect of the Capitol: Funding would total $733.7 million, an increase of $21.6 million, to prioritize day-to-day maintenance and critical safety projects.

Library of Congress: A total of $696 million, up $26 million from the year prior, would allow the LOC to continue to support Congress and the public and modernize IT systems. Funding would go to modernizing mission-specific systems for the Congressional Research Service and the U.S. Copyright Office.

Government Accountability Office: Funding would total $589.7 million, up $10.8 million from the prior year, to allow GAO to hire new staff and support Congress with accurate, nonpartisan reporting of federal programs and tracking expenditures of taxpayer dollars.

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$147 Billion “Minibus”: FY2019 Funding for Veterans, Energy & Water, and Congress