This week the House Appropriations Committee released its draft spending bill for Fiscal Year 2018. As the appropriations process continues, details will be revised, but here are some things to note regarding programs that focus on Americans with the lowest incomes: This bill is based on spending caps that return to very low “sequestration” levels, then go lower. The Budget Control Act from 2011 set overall spending caps for each year for a range of federal programs, referred to as “sequestration” caps. For the last four years the caps have been raised, two years at a time, by bipartisan, short-term budget deals. This year, the last short-term deal expired, leaving the Appropriations Committee with less money than last year for non-defense agencies. In a context of rapidly increasing costs in a number of areas, including rising rents for HUD’s rental assistance programs, these cuts represent an even steeper budget shortfall.
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