FY20:

House Minibus:

This week, beginning on Wednesday, June 12, the House began consideration of the first spending minibus (a bill with multiple spending bills combined), which includes the FY20 House Labor, Health, and Human Services spending bill, of which STD spending is a part of. The House is currently debating the 221 amendments proposed, and approved by the rules committee, for consideration as part of the minibus spending bill. Due to the large number of amendments, debates and consideration of the spending package will continue into next week.

Among the amendments for consideration are:

• A GOP amendment blocking the roll back of changes to Title X
• An increase to the CDC’s opioid and infectious disease program by $15 m
• An Increase to the Minority HIV/AIDS fund by $5 m

Senate:

While the House continues to move forward on their spending bills for FY20, the Senate continues to stall. The Senate is still in need of a topline number for which they can begin to appropriate to. NCSD believes that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby are waiting for a spending caps deal to be reached before setting their top line number.

Raising the Caps:

The Senate Republic leadership met with the White House on Wednesday, June 12 to discuss raising spending caps for FY20. The Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby told reporters that the Senate Republicans and the Administration are almost in agreement on spending levels for FY20.

Senator Shelby said that the group plans to continue talks, and that there has also been ongoing discussion with the Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.