In America, the way we fund the federal government can best be described as a process in which the participants have six months to complete 12 appropriations (spending) bills. Six long months, and yet almost nothing is done until the very last moment.
Even then, most years members of Congress produce spending bills filled with superfluous legislation, hardly satisfying the needs of the country—or the club industry.
Our industry is one of the few that does not receive direct funding from the federal government. However, the appropriations process does affect many aspects of our industry, even though we are not dependent on the money found in Congress’ spending bills.
To better explain the appropriations process and its importance, this month’s column will focus on the realities of Washington’s “approps process” and how it affects us.
Appropriations 101
The appropriations work starts with the president of the United States. In February, the president sends the budget, with funding priorities for the next fiscal year, to Congress for review. Once received, the House of Representatives and the Senate establish their own spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.
By March or April, Congress completes its budget, and, one would assume, the work to reconcile the differences between the president’s and Congress’ budgets would begin. Of course, it rarely works the way you assume it would.
Once the President and Congress have established how our tax money should be spent, the budgets are placed on the backburner. At this point, other legislative issues take precedence until spending really becomes important.
Though it is not an extreme priority yet, Congress’ Appropriations Committees do meet and discuss general outlines of the exact spending they wish to provide for each department and agency of the federal government. Naturally, Republicans and Democrats debate the funding each bill should provide. All the while, the clock is ticking toward the end of the fiscal year—September 30.
With Congress taking off the month of August each year, the expectation is that the real work would start in earnest in July. Unfortunately, the work usually begins in September.
Of course, the 30 days in September are hardly enough time to complete all 12 spending bills. As with any bill, both the House and the Senate create their own versions of each appropriations bill. And, as is often the case, the spending bills from each chamber nearly always have a different bottom-line figure. Thus, not only do the bills have to make it through their respective chamber of Congress, but then they also have to go through a Conference Committee in which a compromise is hashed out.
After reaching a compromise, the new spending bill is sent back to the House and Senate for a final vote. If both chambers pass this compromise bill, it is then sent to the president for consideration. If the bill spends more than the president wants, it will likely be vetoed, and the House and Senate can try to override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers. Should Congress be unsuccessful, the entire process begins anew until there is a bill that spends what the President accepts or is supported by enough members of Congress to override a veto.
That, in a nutshell, is the appropriations process—a long and politically charged process rarely completed by the start of the fiscal year on October 1. To ensure the government stays open after September 30, a Continuing Resolution (CR) is passed by Congress and signed by the President. This CR funds the government at last year’s level and, itself, can be a very hot political potato.
But how does all of this affect the private club industry?
Clubs and Appropriations
The appropriations process is the one major vehicle for the political parties to help define themselves to the voters. The spending bills let members of Congress focus on specific programs they believe voters want funded. This, of course, causes many members to act more passionately (read: politically) to ensure their priority is met.
Additionally, with everyone’s time and energy focused on the appropriations bills, there is usually little opportunity to review and debate critically the other pieces of legislation that need to be completed before the end of the legislative term. Beneficial bills for our industry can be lost as members rush to complete work on the funding bills. And, legislation that is not beneficial to us can sometimes be slipped into larger appropriations bills and passed without much attention.
Meaning this time of year is much more important than might first be assumed. An example may help to explain why this time of year is so critical.
Throughout the summer, H-2B visa legislation extending the returning worker exemption and allowing former H-2B visa holders to return to clubs without being counted against the 66,000 visa cap was untouched. Even though Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) each introduced a bill to renew the exemption earlier in the year, these bills just weren’t made a priority.
Once members returned from their August recess, they determined, with significant prodding from NCA and our H-2B Visa Coalition partners, they needed to make the H-2B legislation a priority. Unfortunately, with the close of the fiscal year rapidly approaching, the appropriations process started to gain momentum. The opportunity to pass either H-2B bill, even with nearly 100 co-sponsors on Stupak’s bill or over 30 on Mikulski’s, was gone.
With all the attention on spending, no member would focus on issues not tied to federal funding. So, the H-2B Visa Coalition began discussions on what appropriations bills to add the returning worker exemption as an amendment.
In late September, the H-2B fix was first added to the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. However, a senator raised an objection before the amendment made it to a final vote.
The next stop was the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations Bill. In late October, the returning worker amendment was added, and the complete bill passed the Senate. Of course, the House had its own version of the CJS bill that didn’t include the H-2B exemption.
The two chambers’ total spending for the CJS bill had significant differences. Couple that fact with the fact that there were many amendments to the House and Senate versions of these bills and one can see there was much to discuss during the Conference Committee meeting.
In the end, a bill appeasing the Democrats in both the House and the Senate was needed. With negotiations centered on the specific dollar amount of the bill, the last thing the House and Senate representatives wanted to do was argue over amendments not related to money. Naturally, the H-2B returning worker exemption language was objected to, and it was, again, removed from the bill.
Next, it was offered as an amendment to the Agriculture spending bill. The Farm Bill is a five-year funding bill that sets the plan for America’s agriculture production and government spending. It is not a bill for visas concerning seasonal workers. But, it is such an important bill that if any amendment can be added, it might become law. Although the H-2B visa fix was offered as an amendment, no member had any desire to discuss an “immigration” issue in the Farm Bill. So, it was bounced from that bill as well.
The final option for this legislation in 2007 was the Omnibus Appropriations Bill—the catch-all bill that included the remaining spending bills and a hodge-podge of other bills. At press time, there was still no word whether the H-2B visa amendment survived in this last appropriations bill.
Par for the Course
Even though the H-2B legislation was strongly supported by a large group of bipartisan members of Congress, the bill could not stand on its own because it got caught up in the appropriations process.
Any bill would have encountered the same reality once September arrived. Unless significant political advantage can be gained by passing something as a stand-alone bill, every piece of legislation discussed in the latter part of the year will end up thrown into an appropriations bill or left for discussion in January or February.
The H-2B visa example is a stark one, but it is par for the course during the appropriations process. Additional bills beneficial to our industry, such as pool and spa safety legislation, also cannot move when the first days of September arrive. No matter how popular a bill may be or how important it is to an industry, the appropriations process brings all other legislative work to a standstill.
Although many may think the entire appropriations procedure has no real affect on NCA members, it does. During the last quarter of the year, all attention turns to securing funding for members’ districts and states and preparing the political battle lines regarding the president’s spending priorities and Congress’ priorities. Each party’s leadership creates the talking points and devises the plan of attack to garner support from their political base and independent voters to show they are doing what is “right for America.” Of course, as they do this, they cannot spend time on other pieces of legislation.
This may not be the best way for Congress to do its business, but when the end of the year rolls around, we have to play by the rules we are given. And it is that reality that makes this the most critical time of the year for NCA.