Fiscal 2016 News Archive: September to November 2015



Note: For budget and spending stories from Dec. 7 onward, click here.

On Oct. 30, the Senate cleared a two-year budget and debt ceiling deal, just 72 hours after it was unveiled by congressional leaders and the White House. The House passed it Oct. 28. Now comes the hard part: writing and clearing appropriations legislation based on that blueprint before the current continuing resolution expires Dec. 11.


The agreement suspends the debt limit until March 2017, averting Treasury’s Nov. 3 deadline for hitting the debt ceiling. It also shores up the Social Security disability trust fund and softens an increase in Medicare Part B premiums. One of its pay-fors, trimming crop insurance subsidies, will be revisited – and is expected to be reversed – later this year.


The following are selected CQ News stories and documents posted from early September to Dec. 6 involving fiscal 2016 appropriations and budget. Coverage of earlier appropriations action and the House and Senate budgets is available here. And coverage of the fiscal 2016 White House request can be found here.

Note: Access to the documents and bill text below may depend on your subscription. For even more coverage, CQ offers BudgetTracker.

Toward an Omnibus (Or 'Cromnibus')

Sure, the budget deal is done and the debt limit is now something for the next president and Congress to worry about. But lawmakers still face a Dec. 11 deadline to fund the government.

CQ Roll Call news stories

Hot Docs (PDFs)

Reconciliation and the Path to a CR

The Senate on Sept. 30 easily passed a spending bill through mid-December, and the House followed soon after. On Oct. 5, the Senate majority leader repackaged most of the fiscal 2016 appropriations bills for potential floor votes even as his staff held negotiations with the White House and other congressional leaders on a new budget agreement. Meanwhile, the House passed its budget reconciliation legislation to repeal parts of the 2010 health care law and freeze federal funding for Planned Parenthood for a year, though the process is not going as smoothly as the GOP would like. The bill faces a risk of being defeated in the Senate, which would deprive Republicans of the chance to force a presidential veto.

CQ Roll Call news stories

Hot Docs (PDFs)

Components: Budget and Debt Deal

Just as the clock ticked from Monday, Oct. 26 to Tuesday, Oct. 27, congressional leaders and the White House unveiled a budget deal to lift spending caps by $80 billion for the next two years — evenly split between defense and nondefense accounts — and raise the debt limit through early 2017. Negotiators also included additional war account funding, which is not subject to the spending caps. The deal would be partially offset through selling off a portion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

CQ Roll Call news stories

Hot Docs (PDFs)

The Budget, the Sequester and the Debt Ceiling

Discretionary spending through fiscal 2021 is limited by the sequester-level spending caps that resulted from a 2011 debt limit law (PL 112-25). Democrats pushed to negotiate a deal to lift those caps, particularly for nondefense programs, and the president threatened to veto any long-term spending bill without such an agreement. Republican defense hawks were willing to negotiate a new deal in order to bolster the military, but fiscal conservatives did not want to undercut the deficit reduction achieved by the spending caps. Raising the debt limit — which Treasury has said will be breached Nov. 3 — found its way into budget negotiations.

CQ Roll Call news stories

Hot Docs (PDFs)

Planned Parenthood

A number of Republicans want to stop funding for Planned Parenthood following the release of videos that allegedly show officials of the family planning group discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue. Democrats largely, and fiercely, have opposed adding such language to any funding bill and have threatened to oppose any appropriations title that does so.

CQ Roll Call news stories

Hot Docs (PDFs)