On December 18, the Senate approved by a vote of 64 to 36, The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (http://www NULL.budget NULL.senate NULL.gov/democratic/index NULL.cfm/files/serve?File_id=104ba8f3-e143-42cf-b0c6-911a85d740d0), which replaces a portion of the mandatory defense and domestic spending cuts under sequestration and sets top line numbers for the federal budget and appropriations process for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2014 and FY2015. Under the agreement, discretionary spending would increase by $63 billion over the next two years to $1.012 trillion for FY2014 and to $1.014 trillion for FY2015.

Last week, the House approved the budget deal by a vote of 332 to 94. President Obama has indicated he will sign it into law. This leaves the House and Senate Appropriations Committees a month to draft a FY2014 omnibus spending package before the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on January 15. NADO will provide updated budget numbers and additional information once it becomes available.