Congress
is combining two or more of the 12 separate appropriations bills to expedite
floor consideration and accommodate the President’s expressed aversion to
omnibus funding legislation. The Senate combined the Department of Defense
(DoD) appropriations bill and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,
and Related Agencies (L-HHS) appropriations bill into an amendment to the House-passed
DoD bill (H.R. 6157).
The combined DoD/LHHS bill passed the Senate on Aug. 23 by a vote of 85-7.
The
next step will be to conference that bill with the House versions of each bill.
The intention is to keep the two bills combined to expedite consideration
before the beginning of fiscal year 2019 on Oct. 1.