Federal Budget and Appropriations

Submitted by cnp_admin on Tue, 01/13/2015 - 4:11am

Why It Matters

Budget and spending decisions by governments affect all Americans and these decisions can have immediate and serious consequences for the people nonprofits serve and the communities in which they operate. Nonprofits work in every community, whether caring for returning soldiers, educating children, rebuilding cities, training the workforce, nursing the sick, supporting our elders, elevating the arts, mentoring our youth, protecting natural resources, nurturing our souls, and much more. As front-line providers of services and as organizations grounded in their communities, charitable nonprofits have a stake in the strength and well-being of the economy and of governments at all levels. Conversely, given the vital role nonprofits play in both the economic and social well-being of our nation, society has an equally strong stake in ensuring that our nonprofits are healthy and able to fulfill their missions in support of the public good.

Where We Stand

The National Council of Nonprofits opposes arbitrary and across-the-board budget cuts at any level of government and will work to inform policymakers of the impact of budget proposals on communities. The Council of Nonprofits likewise opposes policies that institutionalize restrictions on lawmakers’ fiscal options in a manner that restricts state spending growth based on a formula, or that limits legislators’ tax policy options via inflexible measures such as constitutional amendments.

The National Council of Nonprofits opposes the offloading of government services onto nonprofits without paying nonprofits the cost of providing these services. When federal, state, and local revenue is reduced, nonprofits providing public services through grants and contracts with government typically receive disproportionate cuts.

- National Council of Nonprofits Public Policy Agenda

Status

FY 2018 Budget and Appropriations

On March 23, 2018 the President signed an omnibus spending bill, officially titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, nearly six months after the fiscal year began. Pursuant to the Bipartisan Budget Act enacted in February, the omnibus spending bill provides an additional $143 billion in spending for the remainder of FY 2018 compared to limits set under a 2011 deficit reduction law. The law provides $80 billion in new spending for defense and $63 billion more for domestic programs. It includes additional funding for many federal programs that hire charitable nonprofits to perform services on behalf of governments in communities. The spending law does not eliminate any of the programs that President Trump had called for elimination in his budget request to Congress in May 2017. See Special Edition Nonprofit Advocacy Matters: Omnibus Spending Bill Filed for a summary of the bill.

FY 2019 Budget and Appropriations

Congress is behind schedule in the FY 2019 budgeting and spending process because final spending decisions for FY 2018 were not completed until March 2018. Congress must immediately shift to drafting a dozen appropriations bills for the next fiscal year, FY 2019, that begins on October 1. The release of the President’s budget request in February normally kicks off the budgeting and spending legislative process, but the delay in resolving FY 2018 spending has prevented members and staff from focusing on the next fiscal year’s details. Appropriators will begin drafting spending bills by June and many could pass in the House and perhaps the Senate before the August recess. Because many issues, such as the Johnson Amendment, were left out of the omnibus spending bill for FY 2018, and because this is a federal election year, nonprofits will need to keep close watch on the FY 2019 appropriations bills to ensure that adverse, extraneous riders are not attached, and that appropriate spending levels are enacted.