House appropriators on April 29 will take up a fiscal 2016 funding bill that is expected to be less than the Obama administration’s budget request.
When the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee met earlier this year, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), called the administration’s $95 billion request for the next fiscal year a “fantasy.”
Diaz-Balart also indicated that he expects his panel’s measure to match the automatic spending levels in Congress known as budget sequestration.
“He’s blowing through the sequester limits, which is a law. The sequester limits, whether we like it or not, is the law. And he’s blowing through that,” Diaz-Balart told Transport Topics in February, referring to testimony by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
The administration’s proposal also has a small chance of passing in the Senate. Last year, the House easily passed a funding bill without many of the administration’s requests for infrastructure grants and Amtrak programs.
The April 29 hearing is at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2358-A at the Rayburn House Office Building.
