On October 9, the House Budget Committee approved, 21-11, the FY2016 budget reconciliation package (as-yet-unnumbered). Reconciliation is a process by which Congress attempts to bring current laws into compliance with the budget resolution. Congress passed its FY2016 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 11) on May 5 (see The Source, 5/8/15).
S. Con. Res. 11 contains instructions for committees – in this instance, the House Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means Committees – to produce recommendations that would reduce the deficit by $1 billion between FY2016-2025. On September 29, the Energy and Commerce Committee approved recommendations that would impose a one-year moratorium on federal payments to entities that perform abortions and repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund (see The Source, 10/2/15). Under the committee proposals, community health centers would receive an additional $235 million in FY2016.
