Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Smith

Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

WASHINGTON: The Trump Administration, struggling with the demands of the impeachment trial, has ordered a block on budget testimony until mid-March, further compressing the already short schedule this year for legislative action due to the presidential elections, Pentagon sources have confirmed.

While there have been rumors about a possible delay in the White House Feb. 10 release of the budget, the current assumption among Hill watchers is that it will happen as scheduled. But the bar on testimony by the Office of Management and Budget until after the Senate impeachment proceedings, now slated to end March 13, cuts back on available working days in the Senate and the House for passage of the defense policy and spending bills before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Further, because this is an election year, lawmakers are pushing hard to wrap up legislative initiatives before the conventions — as little work gets done once the election cycle hits full swing. The Democratic National Convention is slated for July 13 through July 16 in Milwaukee. The Republican counterpart is scheduled for Aug. 24-27 in Charlotte. So, in reality, work will halt once both sides of Capitol Hill break for the July 4 holiday.

“Little to no legislative activity will likely be accomplished during the 10 days between the DNC and the extended the August recess. Also, as is typical during presidential election years, the Congress is scheduled to home for most all of October,” says Erin Neal, founder of Velocity Government Relations. “This means that any bills that do not get done before the end of the fiscal year will necessarily be picked up by a lame duck congress in November, and possibly signed into law by a lame duck president as well.”

If no hearings can be scheduled before March 13, then the House has eight working days that month in March; the Senate has seven. From April 1 to the July 4 recess, the House has another 43 working days — less if you don’t include the normally shortened hours on Monday when no votes are held until 6:30 pm and Friday when no votes are held after 3 pm. The Senate has 52 official working days between April 1 and their July 3 recess.

Currently, Adam Smith, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, plans to schedule subcommittee hearings on the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for April 22-23, sources close to the Hill say, with full mark up slated for April 30.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

Smith wants to finish the policy bill before House appropriators move on this year’s spending bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has publicly stated that he intends for the House Appropriations Committee to complete its work on all 12 spending bills before the July 4 recess.

“As I’ve said before, the House intends to do its job by passing all 12 appropriations bills before the end of June, so that we have ample time to go to conference with the Senate and complete them before the end of the fiscal year,” he said in a Jan. 30 statement on the floor.  “That will be a historic step if we together can accomplish it.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Republican Senate Armed Services Committee Chair James Inhofe told me he wants to pass the NDAA by Memorial Day, which this year falls on May 25. A spokesperson for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said today that the committee doesn’t announce hearing schedules until the Friday before the week they are slated. And just because the House passes its spending bills doesn’t mean the two parties will be able to agree on a bill before the election.

As Breaking D readers know, the services already have unsheathed the long knives — with their leaders openly pushing for their services to get a bigger hunk of the 2021 budget pie.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Jan. 24 warned an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Security that service budgets “aren’t going to get any better. They are where they are.” His comments highlight the fact that the two-year budget deal between Congress and the White House caps the 2021 budget at $740 billion, only a teeny bit more in Pentagon dollars than the $738 billion appropriated for 2020.

So we already knew the Hill debate was going to be messy before what is expected to be one of the more contentious elections in US history. It’s also going to be a tight squeeze. We expect Hill staff are already stockpiling coffee and sugary snacks for those long days in June.