The Consolidated Appropriations Act , FY2016. On December 18, 2015, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations law for FY2016 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016; P.L. 114-113 / H.R. 2029 ), and the President signed it the same day. Division K of the law provides $52.83 billion for the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) for FY2016. This amount is 1.7% greater than the FY2015 estimate and 0.2% below the President's FY2016 request. Of the total, $14.90 billion is designated as Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds, as directed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (see below). A joint explanatory statement accompanying the legislation provides further congressional directives. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA). On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 ( H.R. 1314 ; P.L. 114-74 ), which was passed by Congress at the end of October. The law raised the overall revised discretionary spending limit that the Budget Control Act ( P.L. 112-25 ) set by $50 billion (from $1.016 trillion to $1.066 trillion) for FY2016 and by another $30 billion (from $1.039 trillion to $1.069 trillion) for FY2017. It increased both security (from $523.1 billion to $548.1 billion) and nonsecurity funding levels (from $493.5 billion to $518.5 billion) and raised OCO funding by $32 billion, divided equally over the two years and between defense and nondefense. It also established minimum OCO funds for both defense and nondefense. For nondefense (SFOPS) OCO, the minimum is $14.9 billion in FY2016 and FY2017. Refugee Supplemental. On October 6, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate SFOPS subcommittee introduced a supplemental appropriations bill ( S. 2145 ) to provide an additional $1 billion in FY2016 emergency funding, through the Migration and Refugee Assistance account, to address the refugee crisis caused by conflict in the Middle East. No action was taken on this legislation. Minibus Legislation. On October 5, 2015, four "minibus" appropriations bills were introduced in the Senate, including S. 2130 , which bundled the Senate FY2016 SFOPS bill ( S. 1725 ) with the Senate FY2016 bills making appropriations for the Department of Defense, Energy and Water Development, Department of Homeland Security, Military Construction, and Department of Veterans Affairs. No action was taken on this legislation. Continuing Resolutions (CR) . On September 30, 2015, the House and Senate approved, and President Obama signed into law, a resolution to provide temporary FY2016 continuing appropriations through December 11, 2015 ( P.L. 114-53 ). The CR covered all of the regular appropriations, including SFOPS, and continued the same authorities and conditions as the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 ( P.L. 113-235 ), except Title IX (Ebola Response and Preparedness). Under the CR, most programs and activities were funded at the FY2015 level, minus an across-the-board reduction of 0.2108%. The reduction did not apply to funds designated as OCO. According to CBO's calculations, SFOPS FY2016 discretionary budget authority was estimated to be $40.6 billion, plus an additional $9.3 billion of OCO funds. Anomalies within the CR that affected SFOPS accounts or activities included allowed funding allocated in certain accounts for Ukraine to be obligated at an accelerated rate, if necessary, to sustain assistance to that country (§148); prohibited high rates of funding distribution early in the fiscal year (§109), which undermined the 30-day distribution requirement for Foreign Military Financing aid to Israel; extended the authority of the U.S. Commission on International Freedom from September 30, 2015, to December 11, 2015 (§147); and extended authority for the U.S. Commission on Public Diplomacy beyond October 1, 2015, to December 11, 2015 (§149). Congress passed two more CRs in order to buy time to vote on the final omnibus appropriation. P.L. 114-96 was signed on December 11, 2015, and continued appropriations through December 16, 2015. P.L. 114-100 was signed on December 16, 2015, and continued appropriations through December 22, 2015. Committee Action. On July 9, 2015, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY2016 SFOPS bill ( S. 1725 ) and reported it to the full Senate. Totaling $49.77 billion before rescissions, the Senate committee recommendation was $2.20 billion (4.2%) below the FY2015 appropriated level, which included Ebola supplemental funding, and $4.31 billion (8%) below the President's FY2016 request. Net of rescissions, the Senate bill funding totaled $48.01 billion. On June 11, 2015, the House Appropriations Committee approved an FY2016 SFOPS bill ( H.R. 2772 ) on a voice vote. Totaling $48.19 billion, before rescissions, H.R. 2772 was $3.78 billion (7.3%) below the FY2015 enacted level (including Ebola emergency appropriations) and $5.89 billion (10.9%) below the FY2016 request. Net of rescissions, the House bill funding totaled $47.99 billion. Budget Resolution (302(a) and 302(b) Allocations). On March 25 and 27, respectively, the House and Senate passed budget resolutions for FY2016. In H.Con.Res. 27 , the House recommended an FY2016 budget authority of $38.34 billion for International Affairs, while in S.Con.Res. 11 the Senate recommended $47.79 billion. On April 30, 2015, the House agreed to a conference report that set the FY2016 budget authority for International Affairs enduring funds at $40.20 billion; the Senate agreed to the same on May 5, 2015. While the conference report included $96.287 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) topline levels, suballocation levels of OCO were not provided. Hearings. In February and March, Secretary of State John Kerry and Acting USAID Administrator Alfonso Lenhardt testified before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the House Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees on the FY2016 SFOPS request. Other Administration officials testified regarding various aspects of the international affairs budget request as well. Budget Submitted to Congress. On February 2, 2015, the President submitted his FY2016 budget to Congress. On February 2, 2015, the Obama Administration submitted to Congress its FY2016 budget request, which included $54.08 billion for the State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Appropriations (SFOPS). Of the total SFOPS request, $17.54 billion was for programs funded through the State operations and related agencies accounts (a 10.9% increase over FY2015 estimates that include emergency Ebola funds), and $36.53 billion was for Foreign Operations accounts (a 1.2% increase from FY2015 estimates that include emergency Ebola funds). About 13% of the request was designated for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), compared with 14.6% of the FY2015 SFOPS funding request and 17.8% of enacted FY2015 funding. Figure 1 , above, shows funding for State Operations and Foreign Operations accounts for each of the past 10 years. Figure 2 , below, provides a breakout of the total FY2016 SFOPS budget request by key components. This report provides an overview and highlights of the request, as well as congressional actions. Appendix A offers an account-by-account comparison of the FY2016 request and legislation to the FY2015-estimated funding. Appendix B provides the International Affairs 150 budget function funding levels. This report will continue to be updated to reflect additional congressional action on FY2016 SFOPS appropriations. The Obama Administration announced in early February 2015 that its FY2016 budget request exceeded the discretionary budget caps established by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25 ) that established defense and nondefense discretionary spending limits for FY2012-FY2021. This raised concern about the possibility of sequestration. Should Congress appropriate discretionary funds that exceed the BCA caps, without repealing the BCA or otherwise legislating a change in the caps, an automatic spending reduction process established by the BCA would be triggered, consisting of a combination of sequestration and lower discretionary spending caps. The sequestration process was triggered in FY2013, but avoided in FY2014 and FY2015 when Congress adhered to less stringent spending caps for those years established by the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA, H.J.Res. 59 , P.L. 113-67 ). For FY2016, the BCA caps were again in effect, creating a potential standoff between the President, who requested raising the budget caps for both defense and nondefense in FY2016, and some in Congress who want to raise the caps only for defense. Enactment in November 2015 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 ( P.L. 114-74 ), which amended the BCA and raised both the defense and nondefense discretionary spending caps for FY216 and FY2017, averted this conflict and paved the way for the omnibus appropriations agreement.