The close of the fiscal year next week is prompting bipartisan worry that the Trump administration will let taxpayer funds expire before they can get out the door.

The Trump administration is on track to let $725 million for bipartisan foreign policy initiatives expire Sept. 30, said Sens. Patty Murray and Brian Schatz, the top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee overseeing the State Department, respectively.

They raised particular concern that OMB is withholding money meant to combat narcotics trafficking, counter Russian influence, and bolster US supply chains.

• “The Trump administration needs to rework its plans and spend these resources as Congress intended, and we need Republicans in Congress to finally join us in insisting that happens,” Murray and Schatz said in a joint statement. Read More

The fear of impoundment by expiration crosses accounts and jurisdictions.

• “We have been working with OMB on that,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins. “I feel very strongly that money that we appropriate should be spent as we direct.”

Democrats pressed the administration for clarity on how they’ll spend appropriations for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which supports research into patient safety and health outcomes.

But AHRQ is on track to spend 97 percent of its appropriated funds by the end of the fiscal year, Chris Klomp, Trump’s nominee to be deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told the Senate’s health committee last week.

It’s unclear how many of the millions of dollars left on the table would go toward the programs Congress designed them for or be siphoned off to other agencies.

• “I’m concerned, but I’ve also got assurances the money’s all going to go out by the end of the month,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who chairs a Senate panel overseeing spending on HHS, told BGOV yesterday.

Collins listed funding for Military Construction-Veterans Affairs programs for the upcoming fiscal year among bills she’d like to see get a Senate vote next week.

• “I expect it to be in session next week,” Collins told reporters. “I think if we did the insulin bill, the Military Construction-VA bill, and permitting reform, that it would make a real difference.”

That bill is traditionally among the more bipartisan of the 12 annual spending bills that Congress passes each fiscal year.

But the Senate’s appropriations work stalled as Democrats demanded a topline agreement on military funding before moving money for domestic agencies, and Democrats are unlikely to fast-track legislation that could help Collins win her re-election in Maine this fall.

• “We have a great bill. We just need a number and we can adjust as we need to,” said Sen. John Boozman, who chairs the subcommittee overseen military housing and healthcare. “That’s really a leadership decision as to when we vote on it. But I think when the time comes, it’d be a good bill to lead out because it is going to be one that is very, very bipartisan.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff, the top Democrat on Boozman’s subcommittee, declined to say whether they had a bipartisan deal to fund those agencies.

• “I want to get a good bill, the right bill done for Georgia that meets our military construction needs and meets the needs of our veterans,” said Ossoff, who is in a competitive re-election race.

Housing advocates who scored wins in a sweeping law passed are engaged in a new fight — funding the grant programs that aim to increase the number of available homes, Erin Schilling reports.

The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act created a slew of grant programs intended to reward localities that change policies to encourage more housing development. But lawmakers still must approve funding for those programs. Disagreement over how much to spend in total, then in each of the 12 bills that fund the government, is holding up the cash.

• Some lobbyists say the money could be delayed until fiscal 2028 amid broader spending battles.

The law also directs HUD to update regulations, such as changing building codes and speeding up environmental permit reviews, which doesn’t need new funding. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle stressed that HUD should start implementing provisions that don’t require additional funding.

• “We have to let the dust settle on just getting the rules written, let’s see how the rules apply, and then it should make its own case for additional funding,” Rep. Mike Flood, chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, said.

This week’s Hill Watch Live offered an update on operations in Iran, including recent cost estimates from the Pentagon and Congressional Budget Office, the effects on gas and diesel prices, and the congressional response.

The panelists also discussed the outlook for defense legislation in the lame-duck session and how different election outcomes could affect national security policy in the new Congress.

Senior Policy Impacts Analyst Aaron Gregg, Senior National Security Reporter Roxana Tiron, and Senior Legislative Analyst Greg Tourial joined host Loren Duggan for the discussion.

Download the slides here and find out more about the series at the Hill Watch Live hub.