The compromise budget deal, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, was approved by the Senate this week, sending the legislation to President Obama for his signature. The bill restores 87% of the funding cut by sequestration in FY2013 for FY2014 nondefense discretionary spending, which includes investments in research at the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Education.
The bill sets the spending caps for total discretionary spending at $1.012 trillion for FY2014 and $1.014 trillion for FY2015. These amounts are significant increases over the sequestration caps mandated by the Budget Control Act: $44.8 billion in 2014 and $18.7 billion in 2015.
The next step in Congress will be for the appropriations committees to develop spending bills, which will need to be completed before the current continuing resolution expires on January 15.