House Democrats on Tuesday released their proposed spending plan for fiscal 2020, detailing how they’d like to allocate $1.3 trillion in defense and non-defense funding.
The total discretionary spending level represents a $51 billion increase from 2019, according to The Hill, with about $27 billion of that increase going to the two largest of the 12 annual spending bills, Defense and Labor, Health, Human Services and Education, also known as Labor-H.
The Democrats proposed $622 billion in Defense funding (not including emergency spending or the off-book Overseas Contingency Operations account), up $15.5 billion.
The Labor-HHS-Education bill includes $189.9 billion in discretionary funding, up $11.8 billion from 2019 and $47.9 billion higher than President Trump requested in his 2020 budget.
The Hill’s Niv Ellis notes that Homeland Security is slated for one of the lowest increases, up just about $300 million compared to 2019, as Democrats continue to oppose Trump’s proposed wall on the southern border.
The Republican-controlled Senate has yet to put forth its own 2020 spending plan as congressional leaders work to negotiate a potential deal to avoid automatic spending cuts set to take effect next year.
