Bipartisan Debt Limit Package -- Passage HR 3746

Passage of the bill, as amended, that would suspend the statutory limit on federal debt through Jan. 1, 2025. It would also set discretionary spending caps for the next two years and include a range of provisions to limit federal spending, rescind unobligated funds and streamline environmental permitting processes. The bill would set base discretionary spending limits for defense and nondefense spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, capping defense spending for fiscal 2024 at $886.4 billion -- an increase of approximately 3 percent -- and nondefense spending at $703.7 billion -- a cut of more than 5 percent. Both caps would increase for fiscal 2025 by 1 percent. Through fiscal 2025, it would also include specific annual cap adjustments for specified programs; provide $44.8 for the veterans' toxic exposure fund established by the PACT Act (PL 117-168); and provide $22 billion for a Commerce Department IT modernization and facility improvement fund. If appropriations legislation for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 is not enacted by Jan. 1 of each year, the bill would set discretionary spending limits for funds provided under a continuing resolution at levels reduced 1 percent from the previous fiscal year. For the subsequent four years, the bill would set overall discretionary spending limits for the purpose of congressional budget enforcement, establishing a cap of $1.62 trillion in fiscal 2026, increasing 1 percent annually to $1.67 trillion in fiscal 2029. The bill would rescind approximately $27.7 billion in unobligated funds, primarily for coronavirus response, including $10.4 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, $3.2 billion for Agriculture Department food supply chain and other activities, $2.2 billion for highway infrastructure programs, and $1.7 billion for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention virus tracking and vaccine development activities. It would also rescind $1.4 billion for IRS enforcement provided by the fiscal 2022 reconciliation package (PL 117-169). The bill would temporarily raise from 49 to 54 the oldest age at which existing work requirements would apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while also exempting homeless individuals, veterans, and individuals under age 25 who aged out of foster care. It would reduce from 12 to 8 percent the maximum number of individuals that states may exempt from SNAP work requirements. It would update the baseline for calculating certain state workforce participation standards for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and provide for a pilot program for states to establish work outcome benchmarks and reduce assistance to beneficiaries who refuse to meet work requirements. The bill would establish an "administrative pay-as-you-go" requirement for federal agencies, requiring agencies to submit to the Office of Management and Budget an estimate of the budgetary effects for any proposed administrative action and, if the action would increase direct spending by at least $1 billion over the next 10 years or $100 million in any one year, include a proposal for an action to reduce spending by at least an equal amount – effective through 2024. The bill would statutorily end the pause on student loan repayments on Aug. 29, 2023. Among provisions to streamline the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act, the bill would set deadlines of one year for environmental assessments and two years for environmental impact statements; limit the page length of such documents; adjust thresholds for levels of review; limit the scope of reviews to "reasonably foreseeable" environmental effects of an action; and limit the definition of major federal actions under NEPA to those subject to "substantial federal control and responsibility." The bill would also legislatively approve the West Virginia-to-Virginia Mountain Valley Pipeline.