| Bill Number | HR-1892 |
| Public Law Number | 115-123 |
Is this the Bipartisan Budget Act you're looking for?
This bill is referred to as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
The full title is the Further Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018; Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2018; SUSTAIN Care Act of 2018; Honoring Hometown Heroes Act.
However, the official name on the bill is An act to amend title 4, United States Code, to provide for the flying of the flag at half-staff in the event of the death of a first responder in the line of duty.
This was done to speed passage. The Senate used an unrelated bill that already had passed the House of Representatives, amended it by adding the contents of the entire budget bill, and then having the House approve the version passed by the Senate.
For more on how this works, read our explanation.
Yearly spending increased by more than $130 billion
The bill specifies the amounts that various federal agencies may spend on certain programs in the 2018 and 2019 .
The budget increases yearly defense spending by about $75 billion and non-defense spending by about $60 billion.
It also allows flags to be flown at half-staff to honor a public safety officer who dies in the performance of their job.
What are we getting?
Some of the things this budget does...
o Provides $4 billion over two years to speed up appointments at Veterans Health Administration (VA) health centers.
o Provides $20 billion for infrastructure.
o Eliminates the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) - a committee established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) to recommend ways to reduce Medicare costs (though it was never implemented).
o Creates a committee to address threats to pensions.
The budget provides no way to pay for all this
To allow for the spending increases the bill provides, it eliminates the sequester - the across-the-board reductions enacted in 2013.
Tax revenues for the two years covered by the bill are estimated to be approximately $2 trillion less than the cost of all the programs it budgets for.
That leaves only borrowing to pay the bills. To make that possible, the bill suspends the debt limit for the next two years.
Your representative probably didn't know what's in this bill
Though this bill allocates spending for the next two years, it was negotiated in secret by a group of Republican and Democratic leaders. It was revealed only shortly before it was to be voted on.
The majority of Congress voted on the bill without fully understanding most of what it includes. American citizens had no opportunity to provide input.
Government funding from the prior continuing resolution (CR) was set to run out on midnight, Feb. 8 - meaning that if the bill (or a new CR) was not passed by then, the government would shut down.
Due to a delay in the Senate, the bill actually passed early in the morning of Feb. 9, so technically the government was shut down for several hours until President Trump signed it.