News and updates

Congress is expected to approve a continuing resolution (CR) this week to keep government operating past the September 30^th end of the federal fiscal year.  The House will take action on the bill early this week, which would provide funding for government programs through November 18^th. The bill would set the discretionary funding at 1.5 percent below current levels as called for in the August debt agreement (PL 122-25).  The extra seven weeks could allow Congress time to pass some stand-alone FY12 spending measures but it is more likely that appropriators will use the extra time to assemble an omnibus spending agreement that would contain most, if not all, FY12 spending bills, and could move to the floors before Thanksgiving.

The bill contains $3.65 billion in disaster relief funding, including $1 billion in immediate aid for FY11, which would be offset by cutting $1.5 billion from the Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.  Democrats in both chambers have expressed concerns about the offset and argued that disaster relief in the past has not been paid for with cuts from other programs.  Instead, Senate Democrats want the House to consider their measure (H J Res 66), which would provide $6.9 billion for disaster aid without offsets.  It was passed by the Senate, 62-37, last week.  Senate Democrats may move to strip the offset from the House bill when it reaches the Senate, but in the meantime are touting their “bipartisan” plan, which funds the administration’s disaster relief request for this year and next.   Both chambers will need to work out a deal by the end of the week if they want to proceed with their planned weeklong recess period next week.

In other appropriations news, the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee is scheduled to consider its annual spending bill on Tuesday, which is expected to be slightly below FY11 spending levels.  NIH may be safe from cuts in the Senate as committee members have expressed that NIH funding is important for economic growth.

Also on Tuesday, the Senate Transportation-HUD Subcommittee is prepared to take action on their FY12 bill, which is anticipated to be in line with the House proposal for just over $55 billion.  The House bill, approved by subcommittee on September 8^th, would provide $55.15 billion in discretionary spending for the Transportation Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and related agencies.  The priorities set in the measures, however, are likely to vary.  The House bill does not include funding for high-speed rail or intercity passenger rail service and would cut funding for HUD by $3 billion — about 7 percent below current levels.

To date, Senate appropriators have approved eight of the 12 annual spending bills, but only one, the Military Construction-VA bill (HR 2055), has passed in the full Senate.  House appropriators have completed work on nine of their 12 bills and six have passed in the full House.  Congress has yet to clear any FY12 spending bills for the President’s signature.

The House released details of their continuing resolution (CR) proposal yesterday, which would fund federal government operations through November 18^th.  The federal fiscal year ends on September 30^th, and Congress is far from completing work on FY12 appropriations.  The measure would fund the government at the $1.043 trillion annual level included in the debt limit agreement (PL 112-25), which is 1.4 percent below current levels.  It also includes $3.65 billion in disaster aid money for both FY11 and FY12, with $1 billion of that funding offset with cuts to a Department of Energy vehicle efficiency program.  Several House Democrats, including our own Norm Dicks, have expressed concerns about the offsets used to fund disaster relief.  This opposition could complicate the bills progress.  House and Senate leaders hope to move the measure by the end of next week with both chambers slated to go into recess during the last week of September.

Meanwhile, Senate appropriators continue to press forward on their FY12 spending bills, including Defense and Commerce-Justice-Science (C-J-S).  The Senate subcommittee approved the C-J-S bill yesterday that would provide $52.7 billion, $626 million below current levels, and $2.1 billion above the level set in the House version of the same bill (HR 2596).  In order to prioritize certain accounts, Senate Democrats propose eliminating funding for 30 programs that had been supported in the FY11 measure.   We are waiting to see the final version of the bill, to be released later today, to fully understand the implications of these eliminations.

The Senate draft C-J-S bill would fund NSF at $6.7 billion, which is $162 million, or 2.4 percent, below the FY11 enacted level.  NASA would receive $17.9 billion, which is $509 million, or 2.8 percent, below the FY11 enacted level.  The measure includes $530 million for the James Webb Space Telescope, an amount that would enable sufficient progress to aim for launch of the space telescope by 2018.  The bill is scheduled for markup in the full Senate Appropriations Committee this afternoon.

With the end of the federal fiscal year looming, congressional leaders are drafting a continuing resolution (CR) for FY12 in order to avoid a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on September 30^th.  The CR is expected to run through November 18th, and would set spending levels at those agreed to in debt limit legislation agreed to last month (PL 112-25).  Both House and Senate leaders want to pass the bill the week of September 19^th in order to go ahead with plans for a scheduled recess the last week of September.

To date, no stand-alone spending bills for FY12 have been approved.  The House has no plans to take up appropriations measures this week.  The Senate, however, hopes to move four of their bills through committee this week:  Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Legislative Branch, and Financial Services.  The Senate bills are expected to include some significant differences in comparison to the House bills and administration proposals, in both overall funding levels and spending priorities.