==============
8 takeaways from the debt ceiling vote
Spending caps
What the deal does: This fight was ostensibly about the national debt — and it produced a deal that locks in two years of caps on federal spending.
For
the fiscal year that kicks off in October, overall discretionary
funding for non-defense programs would stay about the same as today’s
total, while defense funding would get about a 3 percent bump. A year
later, those funding ceilings would increase by less than 1 percent.
The bill includes funding levels for four more years beyond that. But Congress doesn’t actually have to abide by those totals.
What Republicans got:
Democrats agreed to essentially static funding for non-defense
programs, a far cry from the 7 percent increase in President Joe Biden’s
budget request.
Consolation for Democrats: They got Republicans to budge from their demands for substantial spending cuts. The debt limit bill
House Republicans passed in April would have slashed non-defense
funding by more than 20 percent if defense spending were spared from
reductions.
Democrats
also won in the debate over long-term budget constraints. Republicans
wanted a decade of binding totals, but they got only two years of real
caps.
Some streamlining on permits — but nothing on Democrats’ top priority
What the deal does:
The bill includes modest steps to speed up reviews of federal permits
under the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation’s bedrock
regulatory laws. This could offer some help for both fossil fuel and
clean energy projects, but falls far short of what either party had
wanted.
What Republicans got:
The deal sets one- or two-year time limits for environmental reviews of
new projects, limits the number of pages in agencies’ environmental
analyses, and allows developers to go to court if agencies miss the
deadlines.
But
Republicans didn’t achieve the sweeping regulatory changes they had
sought. For instance, the agreement doesn’t restrict project opponents’
ability to sue.
Consolation for Democrats: The biggest one is that it leaves the $369 billion in clean-energy incentives in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act
intact, despite House Republicans’ demands that the spending be rolled
back. That outcome allowed the White House to boast that it had
protected the heart of the president’s climate agenda, whose passage
last year was perhaps Biden’s biggest legislative achievement.
But progressive Democrats are furious.
They note that the deal doesn’t include provisions they had requested
that would have made it easier to build interstate electrical
transmission lines — a dire need for ensuring the spread of wind, solar
and other renewable energy projects.
Adding
to Democrats’ frustration, the White House also acceded to demands from
West Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, to expedite federal approvals for the stalled Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline.
A haircut for the IRS
What the deal does: It
rolls back $21.4 billion from the $80 billion windfall that the
Internal Revenue Service had received last year from the Inflation
Reduction Act, although only $1.4 billion will be rescinded immediately.
Negotiators
say they agreed to redirect an additional $10 billion from the IRS to
other federal agencies in the annual appropriations bill for fiscal year
2024, which begins this October, and do the same thing with another $10
billion for fiscal year 2025.
What Republicans got: They
have made it a priority to rescind funding for the tax agency ever
since they took control of the House, arguing that the IRS would
inevitably ramp up audits on small businesses and the middle class.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy insists that the IRS cuts are a clear win for the GOP.
Consolation for Democrats: The
cuts will make only a relatively small dent in the agency’s total
budget, and White House officials say they don’t expect the cuts to
affect the IRS’s plans in the next five years or so. That explains why
members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are so unhappy with
this outcome.
And
the fight isn’t over. Democrats who support more cash for the IRS to
crack down on wealthy tax cheats may push Congress to provide an
additional infusion to the agency sooner than expected. Meanwhile,
Republicans are likely to seek even more cuts.
More work requirements for safety net programs
What the deal does: It makes the biggest changes
to work requirements for federal food aid in decades. But it also
offers exceptions for homeless people, veterans and recent foster youth
for the first time — a concession to Biden’s team that the Congressional
Budget Office projected would increase overall spending.
What Republicans got: The
deal forces additional work requirements on adults ages 50 to 54 who
don’t have children living with them — an extension from existing
requirements for the 18-to-49 age bracket. It imposes other new
restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly
known as food stamps.
More than 275,000 people are at risk of losing food aid as a result, according to CBO.
The final deal
phases in the SNAP work requirements and sunsets them by 2030. The bill
also includes new restrictions on emergency cash aid known as Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families, which will hit low-income families with
children.
McCarthy
and other Republican lawmakers argue that requirements will help
increase the workforce and provide resources to older Americans to find
jobs.
But
Democrats forcefully dispute that, and the White House says such work
requirements “tie the most vulnerable up in bureaucratic paperwork” and
“have shown no benefit for bringing more people into the workforce.”
Consolation for Democrats:
Once again, it could have been worse. They have largely praised Biden’s
team for helping expand SNAP to several new vulnerable groups amid
Republican demands for new restrictions on other populations.
Covid clawbacks
What the deal does: The White House and House Republicans agreed to take back nearly $28 billion in Covid-19 relief funds, including money slated for highway infrastructure programs and strengthening the food supply chain.
What Republicans got: They
say they recovered unspent funds that had been appropriated to respond
to an acute public health crisis that is no more. The public health
emergency officially ended on May 11, and weekly Covid-19 hospitalizations are at their lowest level since the start of the pandemic.
Consolation for Democrats: They
say they protected several programs intended to maintain readiness if
Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths spike again. The agreement
keeps $5 billion to support research into new Covid vaccines and
treatments, and roughly $800 million for Defense Production Act
investments, including efforts to strengthen pharmaceutical supply
chains.
The
deal also retains money to ensure that people without health insurance
still have access to vaccines and treatments, as well as funds for the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to maintain genomic
surveillance intended to detect emerging variants of concern and other
activities.
So much for that unemployment revamp
What the deal does:
The rescinding of Covid-era funding also removes $1 billion that was
supposed to help states revamp their creaky unemployment insurance
systems. The weaknesses in those systems had become apparent when many
states were unable to quickly deal with the crush of claims for benefits
at the height of the pandemic — or to stem widespread fraud.
Congress
originally provided $2 billion for the program. Taking account of money
that has already been obligated, only about $500 million will be left
after the debt deal takes effect.
The Labor Department announced a $653 million round of grants just last
The
Labor Department announced a $653 million round of grants just last
week. But the clawback throws that money into question and raises
concerns about other tranches that could also be affected.
What Republicans got: The
cuts go after a program whose structure had brought objections from GOP
lawmakers, some of whom took issue with its goal of addressing
inequities in the unemployment insurance system.
The
GOP has also focused on how acting Labor Secretary Julie Su handled
California’s unemployment program when she was a top official in that
state, and have made it one of their main arguments against Su’s
confirmation as full-time secretary.
Consolation for Democrats: See above — it could have been worse.
The return of student loan payments
What the deal does: The
legislation terminates the Education Department’s ongoing suspension of
federal student loan payments and interest as of Aug. 30.
It
effectively requires the Biden administration to resume collecting
monthly payments and charging interest for roughly 40 million Americans
for the first
What Republicans got:
They cemented into law the Biden administration’s stated plan to
restart student loan payments later this year — preemptively blocking
the White House from offering any further extensions.
GOP
lawmakers hailed the end of the payment pause as a victory for
taxpayers, citing the roughly $5 billion-a-month price tag of keeping
the payments halted and interest rates set to 0 percent.
Still,
many conservatives were unhappy that the deal didn’t go further and
block Biden’s plan to cancel large swaths of outstanding student debt
outright. That plan would wipe out up to $20,000 of debt apiece for tens
of millions of Americans.
Consolation for Democrats:
They fended off House GOP demands that would have ended the payment
pause, blocked student debt cancellation, and prevented Biden from
moving ahead with a new income-driven repayment plan aimed at lowering
monthly payments. Republicans also wanted to permanently curtail the
Education Department’s authority to make changes to the student loan
program.
Limits on defense spending (for now)
What the deal does:
It caps defense spending for the next two years, a break from the last
two years of growth in the Pentagon budget. But it doesn’t preclude
Congress from giving the military a spending boost sometime later,
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday under prodding from defense hawks.
The deal caps defense spending at
$886 billion for fiscal 2024, a 3.2 percent increase from current levels
and in line with what Biden had requested. Military spending would then
go up by just 1 percent in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.
What Republicans got: GOP
defense hawks avoided cuts, but the fact that the deal endorses Biden’s
preferred topline is a loss. Despite concerns that the push to rein in
spending would mean slashing the Pentagon, defense spending still
increases.
Still, defense hawks are pushing for
supplemental funding. Schumer didn’t promise such a supplemental will
get a vote, but he entered a statement into the record saying the debt
deal doesn’t prevent the Senate from approving additional emergency
spending — for either national security or domestic needs.
Consolation for Democrats: They
get the defense funding level the administration proposed, at least in
the near term, even though some would have backed more money for the
military. The deal also treats defense and
===================
==============
8 takeaways from the debt ceiling vote
Spending caps
What the deal does: This fight was ostensibly about the national debt — and it produced a deal that locks in two years of caps on federal spending.
For
the fiscal year that kicks off in October, overall discretionary
funding for non-defense programs would stay about the same as today’s
total, while defense funding would get about a 3 percent bump. A year
later, those funding ceilings would increase by less than 1 percent.
The bill includes funding levels for four more years beyond that. But Congress doesn’t actually have to abide by those totals.
What Republicans got:
Democrats agreed to essentially static funding for non-defense
programs, a far cry from the 7 percent increase in President Joe Biden’s
budget request.
Consolation for Democrats: They got Republicans to budge from their demands for substantial spending cuts. The debt limit bill
House Republicans passed in April would have slashed non-defense
funding by more than 20 percent if defense spending were spared from
reductions.
Democrats
also won in the debate over long-term budget constraints. Republicans
wanted a decade of binding totals, but they got only two years of real
caps.
Some streamlining on permits — but nothing on Democrats’ top priority
What the deal does:
The bill includes modest steps to speed up reviews of federal permits
under the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation’s bedrock
regulatory laws. This could offer some help for both fossil fuel and
clean energy projects, but falls far short of what either party had
wanted.
What Republicans got:
The deal sets one- or two-year time limits for environmental reviews of
new projects, limits the number of pages in agencies’ environmental
analyses, and allows developers to go to court if agencies miss the
deadlines.
But
Republicans didn’t achieve the sweeping regulatory changes they had
sought. For instance, the agreement doesn’t restrict project opponents’
ability to sue.
Consolation for Democrats: The biggest one is that it leaves the $369 billion in clean-energy incentives in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act
intact, despite House Republicans’ demands that the spending be rolled
back. That outcome allowed the White House to boast that it had
protected the heart of the president’s climate agenda, whose passage
last year was perhaps Biden’s biggest legislative achievement.
But progressive Democrats are furious.
They note that the deal doesn’t include provisions they had requested
that would have made it easier to build interstate electrical
transmission lines — a dire need for ensuring the spread of wind, solar
and other renewable energy projects.
Adding
to Democrats’ frustration, the White House also acceded to demands from
West Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, to expedite federal approvals for the stalled Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline.
A haircut for the IRS
What the deal does: It
rolls back $21.4 billion from the $80 billion windfall that the
Internal Revenue Service had received last year from the Inflation
Reduction Act, although only $1.4 billion will be rescinded immediately.
Negotiators
say they agreed to redirect an additional $10 billion from the IRS to
other federal agencies in the annual appropriations bill for fiscal year
2024, which begins this October, and do the same thing with another $10
billion for fiscal year 2025.
What Republicans got: They
have made it a priority to rescind funding for the tax agency ever
since they took control of the House, arguing that the IRS would
inevitably ramp up audits on small businesses and the middle class.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy insists that the IRS cuts are a clear win for the GOP.
Consolation for Democrats: The
cuts will make only a relatively small dent in the agency’s total
budget, and White House officials say they don’t expect the cuts to
affect the IRS’s plans in the next five years or so. That explains why
members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are so unhappy with
this outcome.
And
the fight isn’t over. Democrats who support more cash for the IRS to
crack down on wealthy tax cheats may push Congress to provide an
additional infusion to the agency sooner than expected. Meanwhile,
Republicans are likely to seek even more cuts.
More work requirements for safety net programs
What the deal does: It makes the biggest changes
to work requirements for federal food aid in decades. But it also
offers exceptions for homeless people, veterans and recent foster youth
for the first time — a concession to Biden’s team that the Congressional
Budget Office projected would increase overall spending.
What Republicans got: The
deal forces additional work requirements on adults ages 50 to 54 who
don’t have children living with them — an extension from existing
requirements for the 18-to-49 age bracket. It imposes other new
restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly
known as food stamps.
More than 275,000 people are at risk of losing food aid as a result, according to CBO.
The final deal
phases in the SNAP work requirements and sunsets them by 2030. The bill
also includes new restrictions on emergency cash aid known as Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families, which will hit low-income families with
children.
McCarthy
and other Republican lawmakers argue that requirements will help
increase the workforce and provide resources to older Americans to find
jobs.
But
Democrats forcefully dispute that, and the White House says such work
requirements “tie the most vulnerable up in bureaucratic paperwork” and
“have shown no benefit for bringing more people into the workforce.”
Consolation for Democrats:
Once again, it could have been worse. They have largely praised Biden’s
team for helping expand SNAP to several new vulnerable groups amid
Republican demands for new restrictions on other populations.
Covid clawbacks
What the deal does: The
White House and House Republicans agreed to take back nearly $28
billion in Covid-19 relief funds, including money slated for highway
infrastructure programs and strengthening the food supply chain.
What Republicans got: They
say they recovered unspent funds that had been appropriated to respond
to an acute public health crisis that is no more. The public health
emergency officially ended on May 11, and weekly Covid-19 hospitalizations are at their lowest level since the start of the pandemic.
Consolation for Democrats: They
say they protected several programs intended to maintain readiness if
Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths spike again. The agreement
keeps $5 billion to support research into new Covid vaccines and
treatments, and roughly $800 million for Defense Production Act
investments, including efforts to strengthen pharmaceutical supply
chains.
The
deal also retains money to ensure that people without health insurance
still have access to vaccines and treatments, as well as funds for the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to maintain genomic
surveillance intended to detect emerging variants of concern and other
activities.
So much for that unemployment revamp
What the deal does:
The rescinding of Covid-era funding also removes $1 billion that was
supposed to help states revamp their creaky unemployment insurance
systems. The weaknesses in those systems had become apparent when many
states were unable to quickly deal with the crush of claims for benefits
at the height of the pandemic — or to stem widespread fraud.
Congress
originally provided $2 billion for the program. Taking account of money
that has already been obligated, only about $500 million will be left
after the debt deal takes effect.
The Labor Department announced a $653 million round of grants just last
The
Labor Department announced a $653 million round of grants just last
week. But the clawback throws that money into question and raises
concerns about other tranches that could also be affected.
What Republicans got: The
cuts go after a program whose structure had brought objections from GOP
lawmakers, some of whom took issue with its goal of addressing
inequities in the unemployment insurance system.
The
GOP has also focused on how acting Labor Secretary Julie Su handled
California’s unemployment program when she was a top official in that
state, and have made it one of their main arguments against Su’s
confirmation as full-time secretary.
Consolation for Democrats: See above — it could have been worse.
The return of student loan payments
What the deal does: The
legislation terminates the Education Department’s ongoing suspension of
federal student loan payments and interest as of Aug. 30.
It
effectively requires the Biden administration to resume collecting
monthly payments and charging interest for roughly 40 million Americans
for the first
What Republicans got:
They cemented into law the Biden administration’s stated plan to
restart student loan payments later this year — preemptively blocking
the White House from offering any further extensions.
GOP
lawmakers hailed the end of the payment pause as a victory for
taxpayers, citing the roughly $5 billion-a-month price tag of keeping
the payments halted and interest rates set to 0 percent.
Still,
many conservatives were unhappy that the deal didn’t go further and
block Biden’s plan to cancel large swaths of outstanding student debt
outright. That plan would wipe out up to $20,000 of debt apiece for tens
of millions of Americans.
Consolation for Democrats:
They fended off House GOP demands that would have ended the payment
pause, blocked student debt cancellation, and prevented Biden from
moving ahead with a new income-driven repayment plan aimed at lowering
monthly payments. Republicans also wanted to permanently curtail the
Education Department’s authority to make changes to the student loan
program.
Limits on defense spending (for now)
What the deal does:
It caps defense spending for the next two years, a break from the last
two years of growth in the Pentagon budget. But it doesn’t preclude
Congress from giving the military a spending boost sometime later,
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday under prodding from defense hawks.
The deal caps defense spending at
$886 billion for fiscal 2024, a 3.2 percent increase from current levels
and in line with what Biden had requested. Military spending would then
go up by just 1 percent in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.
What Republicans got: GOP
defense hawks avoided cuts, but the fact that the deal endorses Biden’s
preferred topline is a loss. Despite concerns that the push to rein in
spending would mean slashing the Pentagon, defense spending still
increases.
Still, defense hawks are pushing for
supplemental funding. Schumer didn’t promise such a supplemental will
get a vote, but he entered a statement into the record saying the debt
deal doesn’t prevent the Senate from approving additional emergency
spending — for either national security or domestic needs.
Consolation for Democrats: They
get the defense funding level the administration proposed, at least in
the near term, even though some would have backed more money for the
military. The deal also treats defense and
===============
