Congress Raises Spending Caps, Appropriations Bills to Be Considered

On Oct. 30, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. President Obama signed the bill into law a day before the government would have been in default without the agreements. The legislation provides a two-year framework to relieve federal programs from the bulk of sequester spending caps. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, the act provides $33 billion more for nondefense discretionary programs than would have been available if the sequester caps had remained in place.