Winning approval in the House and Senate, a combined package of fiscal year 2016 appropriations and tax extenders is headed to the President for his signature in the coming days. As previously reported here, this legislation includes significant progress on University priorities from the largest NIH funding increase in more than a decade to the permanent extension of IRA Charitable Rollover.
Until this morning, this positive outcome was not assured, particularly in the always unpredictable House. Democratic and Republican House leaders rallied their members and were able to achieve a significant win on the funding bill with a final vote of 316-113 that includes majorities from both parties. The vote approving the funding bill followed on the House’s approval yesterday of the tax bill by a vote of 318-109. Through a previously adopted procedural move, the Senate voted on a single bill that combined the funding and tax bills. This legislation passed the Senate in a bipartisan 65-33 vote. This bill sets the final funding levels for all federal programs; we have developed a detailed chart that tracks the funding for key programs and includes more detail on the final numbers. It is available here.
With this work complete, Congress will soon adjourn and head home for the holidays. The House will reconvene January 5th and the Senate will return the following Monday, January 11th.
As always, please feel free to be in touch with Suzanne Day (Suzanne_day@harvard.edu) or Jon Groteboer (Jon_groteboer@harvard.edu) in Harvard's DC office at 202 863-1292.
