Government affairs

With the announcement of President Obama’s FY 2016 budget request earlier this month, lawmakers will now set their sights on consideration of 12 annual appropriations bills to fund each agency beginning Oct. 1, 2015.

As is customary, beginning this week, both the House and Senate began hearings to begin work on each chamber’s formal budget submissions, which are typically due on April 15.

In the coming weeks, NALC expects that members of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) will decide whether or not to preserve long-standing six-day language, just as they have since 1983.

Last year was a fight and this year will be no different.

If you have a member of Congress on the Appropriations Committee in the House and/or Senate, please convey the importance of preserving this long-standing language. It’s never too early to begin the fight.