Category: Legislation

Late last night (or early morning, if you want to be more accurate), the House approved a continuing resolution (CR) to keep federal government running past September 30^th but the bill faces challenges in the Senate this morning.  Even before passage of the House bill, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) warned his caucus would block approval in the Senate and instead take the debate into next week when lawmakers had hoped to be on recess for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

Running through November 18th, the House CR keeps faith with the August budget accords, imposing a 1.5 percent across-the-board cut on domestic and defense agencies alike to meet the target of $1.043 trillion for FY12.  But the level of disaster aid, $3.65 billion over the next 13 months, is less than half of what the Senate wants and Republicans have insisted on about $1.6 billion in offsets targeted at Democratic priorities.  The House bill would take $1.5 billion from an advanced technology manufacturing program for the auto industry to pay for a portion of disaster relief.  Additionally, a new $100 million cut was added to the bill late Thursday, rescinding unobligated money in an alternative energy loan fund that helped finance Solyndra LLC, the controversial solar panel manufacturer in California that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Senate is poised to reject the House-passed CR this morning, leaving congressional leaders scrambling for a deal to avert a government shutdown at the end of next week.  It is predicted that the Senate will amend the House bill and then pass the package to eliminate $1.5 billion in offsets. This will certainly anger House Republicans and almost guarantees that passage of any CR won’t happen today.  Yesterday, Senate leadership released a statement saying they are ready to stay in Washington next week to “do the work the American people expect us to do and I hope the House Republican leadership will do the same.”

If the House had removed the offsets instead of adding to them in the second CR attempt, Democrats say that would have paved the way for Democratic votes in both chambers to approve the measure.

House Republicans and Senate Democrats have been at odds for more than a week over whether any of the disaster aid should be offset.  The House-passed bill (HR 2608) was largely unchanged from a measure defeated Wednesday in the House by a unified Democratic party and four dozen conservatives seeking to hold the line on spending.  The only major change was the addition of a new $100 million offset rescinding money for the loan program that supported the defunct solar panel maker Solyndra.  House GOP conservatives, who opposed the initial version, said they switched their votes after becoming convinced by party leaders that there was no better option.

The fun will continue this morning in the Senate.  Stay tuned for more…

Yesterday, the House of Representatives failed to approve a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund federal government beyond September 30^th – the end of the federal fiscal year.  That CR would have extended funding at current levels through November 18^th.

Two issues caused the defeat of the bill.  First, the failed CR would have set the total annual spending level for the first seven weeks of FY12 at an annualized rate of $1.043 trillion, in accordance with the debt limit law approved in early August.  This is higher than the $1.019 trillion budget that the House adopted in April, which caused concerns for many House Republicans who want to see greater reductions in government spending.  The second contentious issue has to do with how to pay for disaster funding for states hit hard by Hurricane Irene and tornados.  The House bill would have provided $1 billion in FY11 money for the nation’s Disaster Relief Fund, offsetting that amount with a $1.5 billion cut in an energy-efficient auto program.  The CR also would have provided $2.65 billion in FY12 disaster spending.  Senate Democrats prefer a measure sponsored by Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) that would provide $500 million in FY11 disaster aid, without offsets, and $6.9 billion for FY12.  Disaster funding legislation has traditionally been approved without offsets.

With both chambers set for recess next week, a deal must be struck quickly to avoid a government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins October 1^st.  Late last night, the House Rules Committee approved a same-day measure that could allow the House to consider a revised version of the CR as soon as this afternoon.  There is some speculation that House leaders will pare spending levels CR as a way to attract additional support from conservative lawmakers.  However, Senate Democrats have taken a tough stand on that issue and say they will not agree to any CR that would alter spending levels set in the August debt agreement.  

We should learn more as the day goes on.

The Association of American Universities (AAU) released the following outlook today for the appropriations process scheduled to resume next week when congress returns from recess:  

The Senate Appropriations Committee will begin moving its FY12 bills next week as soon as the Senate returns from the August recess on September 6.  Two bills will be marked up that day in their respective subcommittees: Energy and Water and Homeland Security.  CQ Today reports that the full committee is expected to meet shortly after the subcommittee markups to adopt the FY12 spending cap and allocate funding among the panel’s 12 subcommittees.  Just one funding bill, Military Construction-Veterans, was approved by the Senate before the recess. 

 Senate Democratic leaders delayed approval of an FY12 budget resolution, which sets the discretionary spending ceiling for the fiscal year, because they could not gain majority support for any particular level of spending.  The issue was resolved on August 2 with enactment of the Budget Control Act, which included a discretionary spending total of $1.043 trillion for FY12.  That is $7 billion less than the FY11 level, but about $23 billion more than the level in the House-passed FY12 budget resolution.  

Earlier this year, the House passed an FY12 Budget Resolution that cut $30 billion from discretionary spending in FY11, and then approved six of its 12 appropriations bills based on those numbers.  The remaining bills include Commerce-Justice-Science, which funds the National Science Foundation and NASA, and Labor-HHS-Education, which funds the National Institutes of Health and student aid.

At this writing, House Republican leaders have not said how they will move forward on the remaining FY12 bills in light of the increased spending total, but they have expressed support for abiding by the higher overall number.  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), said in a memorandum to his Republican colleagues on August 17, “While all of us would like to have seen a lower discretionary appropriations ceiling for the upcoming fiscal year, the debt limit agreement did set a level of spending that is a real cut from the current year level.  I believe it is in our interest to enact into law full-year bills at this new lower level.”  House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) stated his commitment to maintaining “the responsible 2012 spending level agreed to by the House, Senate, and White House under the recent debt ceiling agreement.” 

 While the Senate appropriations process is finally moving forward, the new fiscal year is just one month away, so there seems little chance that the House and Senate can approve all of their bills and reconcile them with one another by October 1.  The more likely scenario is congressional approval of one or more continuing resolutions to sustain funding into the new fiscal year, followed by some type of omnibus appropriations package.