FY 2012 Appropriations Cycle Begins in the House, Committee Proposes Large Construction Funding Cuts

With fiscal year 2011 funding in place, the House of Representatives has started the FY 2012 in earnest by announcing a schedule for marking up the annual appropriations bills, as well as plans for how House Budget Resolution spending totals will be divided between the twelve Appropriations Subcommittees. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Roger (R-Ky.) plans to move nine of the 12 bills through the House by the August recess and take up the remaining bills in September.  Under the schedule, the Military Construction-VA bill will be marked-up in subcommittee on May 13 and full committee on May 24; the Defense bill marked-up in subcommittee on June 1 and full committee on June 14; the Transportation-HUD bill will be marked up in subcommittee on July 14 and in the full committee on July 26; and the Energy and Water bill funding the Corps of Engineers will be marked up in subcommittee on June 2 and in full committee on June 15. Along with the schedule, Chairman Rogers also announced the funding levels for each subcommittee.  All of the appropriations bills, except for the defense bill, will see a reduction from FY 2011 levels. The three security-related subcommittees (Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-VA) collectively receive $643 billion, a 2.4 percent increase from fiscal year 2011.  The other nine subcommittees take an almost 11 percent cut to $376 billion. Of the bills that AGC closely monitors, the Transportation-HUD bill takes the third-largest cut of all, $47.7 billion, a $7.7 billion or 13.9 percent reduction from FY 2011.  That number is a 36 percent cut from President Obama’s request.  The Energy and Water bill takes a nearly $2.7 billion or 3.3 percent reduction; Military Construction a $615 million or 0.8 percent reduction; and Interior-Environment bill a $2 billion or 7.1 percent reduction. For a complete list of the appropriations schedule and funding levels, click here. This year’s appropriations process was delayed because of the debate over FY 2011 spending,  which was settled just last month. Taking that delay into consideration and the fact that Senate appropriators are waiting on the Senate Budget Committee to move their budget before they begin their work on FY 2012 bills, the chances of Congress finishing all twelve bills by September 30 is slim. AGC will continue to work through the appropriations and budget process to ensure the construction industry does not see a disproportionate amount of the cuts that will be a part of the FY 2012 spending levels. For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.