House Republican plans for early consideration of a fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget resolution are uncertain in the wake of opposition by appropriators to use the annual spending bills to cut entitlement programs.
Republicans on the House Budget Committee reportedly had agreed on a FY 2017 budget plan that would have included various proposals for cutting mandatory spending programs to offset the additional discretionary spending agreed to last year as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-74).
These proposals that would have included attaching changes in entitlement programs to the annual appropriations bills, but both Republican and Democratic appropriators objected to that approach, concerned that it would derail the appropriations process.
The Bipartisan Budget Act raised the discretionary caps over two years by $80 billion – including by $30 billion to $1.070 trillion in FY 2017.
Conservatives in the House, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, are threatening to oppose a budget resolution unless it reverses the increased FY 2017 discretionary spending caps approved in the last year’s budget deal.
The House Budget Committee has postponed markup of its blueprint until early March.