Today, the leadership in Congress announced that a second continuing resolution (CR) lasting until December 18th will be attached to the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill conference report -as appeared likely earlier this week. It is expected that the measure will pass by the end of the week. Since the end of the fiscal year was September 30th and all appropriations bills were not passed on-time, Congress passed a CR to keep the government operating. A CR is a stopgap measure that funds the government at the previous year’s appropriations level. The CR will give Congress more time to complete the remaining 7 appropriations bills. With the passage of the joint Interior/Environment-CR measure later this week, Federal Relations expects support for the Puget Sound Ecosystem Research Initiative.
Agency Items of Note from the Interior-Environment Conference Report:
- $167.5 million for the NEH and the same for NEA; an increase of 8% over FY09
- $846 million for EPA S&T; an increase of 7% over FY09
- $1.112 billion for USGS; an increase of 6.5% over FY09