Legislative Branch (115th Congress)
Membership
- Tim Ryan, Ranking Member
- Betty McCollum
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Jurisdiction
- House of Representatives
- Joint Items
- Architect of the Capitol (except Senate Items)
- Botanic Garden
- Capitol Police
- Capitol Visitors Center
- Congressional Budget Office
- Government Accountability Office
- Government Printing Office
- John C. Stennis Center
- Library of Congress
- Office of Compliance
- Open World Leadership Center
- United States Capitol Preservation Commission
Recent Activity
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Even a bill worthy of our support, as this one is, should be part of a coherent budget strategy. It doesn’t appear that the majority has one. In fact, according to the reporting, Republicans are further away from agreement on a budget this week than they were last week.
The FY 2018 Legislative Branch appropriations bill provides $3.58 billion (excluding Senate items).
While these investments are extremely important, I cannot say that everything in this bill is positive. The Government Accountability Office would receive $568.3 million for FY 2018, $46.2 million less than its budget request. It is irresponsible to underfund the GAO, especially when Administration officials have reportedly been ordered not to comply with Democratic oversight requests.
Even though this is a good bill, we’re still budgeting blind. The Republicans control the entire government but they can’t agree with themselves on a budget or a plan to adjust the statutory spending caps. As a result, we don’t know if approving this bill means we won’t have any money left for cancer research, job training programs, or fighting the opioid epidemic.