Congress approves FY 2011 appropriations - Finally!
Apr 15, 2011

The deed is done.

More than six months after the beginning of Fiscal Year 2011, Congress has finally approved funding for the government through September 30.

It took an 11th hour agreement this past Friday and then it took bi-partisan votes in the House and Senate yesterday to make it happen.

It was a messy process, and remained messy yesterday.

While the compromise agreement was touted as $38 billion in cuts, there were, as usual, some squirrely cuts to smooth the deal.

It turns out that the hard-won deal included about $13 - $18 billion of cuts that were kind of smoke and mirror reductions, cuts of money that would not have been spent in any case.

In addition, the Congressional Budget Office analyzed the agreement, and concluded and the net effect of the reductions in this fiscal year is $352 million in outlays. There the problem is that the agreement covered budget authority (the authority to spend money) while the money actually spent each fiscal year is called outlays.

The Continuing Resolution Saga Continues
Mar 15, 2011

(http://livableworld.org/calendar/)

The Continuing Resolution saga continues. Last week, the Senate rejected both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee versions of a bill to fund the government for the rest of Fiscal Year 2011.

On March 9, the Senate rejected the House-passed Continuing Resolution that would have cut the President's budget by $100 billion by a vote of 44 - 56 and a Senate Appropriations Committee version that would cut $51 billion from the President's request by a vote of 42 - 58.

On Friday, March 11, the House Appropriations Committee proposed another short-term Continuing Resolution to fund the government until April 8.

The House is expected to vote on the bill on March 15 -- beware of the ides of March. The Senate should vote later this week.

Senate acts to restore some House-passed budget cuts
Mar 05, 2011

The week of March 1, Congress approved a two-week measure to fund the government that included about $4 billion in additional cuts from the President's request. Negotiations involving the White House, the Senate and the House began on a measure to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.

In the meantime, on March 4, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a new version of the Continuing Resolution that would cut $51 billion from the President's request compared to a $100 billion cut from the House.

The draft Senate Continuing Resolution funds the Pentagon base budget at $513.6 billion and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at $157.8 billion for a total of $671.3 billion. That total is $17.3 billion less than the President's request and $2.1 billion less than the House approved.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has proposed to restore about $300 million for the nuclear non-proliferation program, still a reduction of about $360 million from the Administration's request. According to the Senate committee, this compares to a $648 million in the House bill. The Senate bill restores most or all of the $300 million that the House cut from nuclear complex modernization.

For State-Foreign Operations, which constitutes most of the International Affairs Budget, the Senate measure provides $50.15 billion, $500 million below current Continuing Resolution levels but $4.2 billion (7.6%) below the Fiscal Year 2010 levels. The House-passed version of the bill includes a 19% cut to the International Affairs Budget (for State-Foreign Operations the cut is 16%).(Source: US Global Leadership Coalition)

Continuing Resolution in the House: Echoes of Lord of the Flies
Feb 19, 2011

House consideration of the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution echoed the famous novel Lord of the Flies authored by William Golding. The book is about a group of British schoolboys stranded on a deserted island without adult supervision who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results.

Around 4:30 AM Saturday morning, the House concluded its marathon, free-wheeling four days of consideration of the Continuing Resolution. The bill passed on an almost party-line vote of 235 – 189, with all Democrats voting against and all but three Republicans voting for.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) gave almost free rein to his flock to offer any amendments on a bill funding the federal government. Republicans then used the measure to target as many New Deal, Great Society and Obama Administration policies as they could. The only reason they could not move against Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid is that these entitlement programs are not funded in the bill.

The major focus in the bill and amendments was on federal government programs in the health, environment, regulatory reform areas and more – with special crosshairs on defunding implementation of the health care reform bill adopted last year.

There was a long debate on an amendment eventually adopted to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The Environmental Protection Agency would be prohibited from regulating greenhouse gases. the Federal Communications Commission would be barred from initiating net neutrality regulations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would be blocked from fighting gun trafficking to Mexico.

Feb. 18 update: Defense/Nuclear/Foreign Policy Amendments to Continuing Resolution in the House
Feb 18, 2011

Last evening, the House had an “early” night, finishing at 1:10 AM, two hours earlier than the previous evening. It resumes meeting at 9:00 AM today. First votes are not likely before 11:00 AM (perhaps some Members wanted to sleep in this morning?).

Much of the debate last evening was consumed by Republicans going after pet targets such as Planned Parenthood and Environmental Protection Agency efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The House hopes to complete action today, but there are about 130 many amendments that could be offered. Under a unanimous consent agreement, each amendment can be debated for no more than 10 minutes – with a few exceptions.

Yesterday, amendments to cut funding for the United States Institute for Peace and the East-West Center were successful, while a Woolsey (D-CA) amendment to kill the V-22 and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle went down in flames, 91 – 339 (see below).

In the frenzy of cutting, somewhat surprisingly, a Heller amendment to cut several multilateral assistance accounts by $211 million, including cutting International Organizations and Programs by $45 million, was defeated 190 – 241. Almost all Democrats plus 59 Republicans opposed the amendment.

Among amendments pending for votes today are three national security-related amendments offered yesterday: an Afghanistan war defunding amendment, a second one barring Pentagon sponsorship of NASCAR race cars and a third blocking aid to Chad.

Feb. 17 update - Defense/Nuclear/Foreign Policy Amendments to Continuing Resolution in the House
Feb 17, 2011

Defense/Nuclear/Foreign Policy Amendments
to Continuing Resolution in the House
The End of the Line

Today was scheduled to be the last day of House consideration of the Fiscal Year Continuing Resolution. Last evening, the House continued its frenetic action, considering the bill until 3:43 AM (no, while I am a congressional wonk, I am not a fanatic and turned in long before then) and resumes session at 9:00 AM today, with first votes as early as 9:45 AM.

However, the House is not expected to complete action by its self-imposed deadline of 3:00 PM today. Instead, it may go late into the evening, or even Friday.

Now that the House has completed reading of the bill, there are many amendments still to be offered “at the end of the bill.”

Debate was completed on 13 amendments for which recorded votes were demanded. These votes will probably be held this morning. Three amendments listed under “Amendments debated but not voted on” appear to be national security-related.

Feb. 16 update - Defense/Nuclear/Foreign Policy Amendments to Continuing Resolution in the House
Feb 16, 2011

The House voted down five national security-related amendments yesterday, four by recorded vote, and debated three more amendments that will be voted upon at some point today.

The House completed action at 1:13 AM (no, I was not watching) and resumes session at 10 AM today with debate on the Continuing Resolution to begin at Noon.

There are now a total of 583 amendments submitted.  However, yesterday the debate on amendments proceeded to p.263 of the bill, meaning that the Pentagon and Department of Energy sections have been completed (amendments before that point are no longer eligible to be offered). A number of amendments were submitted yesterday that appear to be ineligible for consideration because they refer to pages of the bill already passed.

Defense/Nuclear/Foreign Policy Amendments to Continuing Resolution in the House
Feb 15, 2011

Something for spending and policy wonks: first list of national security amendments to Continuing Resolution on the House floor between February 15-17, 2011.

There are amendments on such diverse topics as defense, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, United Nations, Russia, missile defense, Yucca Mountain, weapons programs and military bands.

The list follows:

Offered By: Mr. Cravaack (cuts all funds for U.S. Institute for Peace)
    AMENDMENT NO. 1: Page 321, line 7, after the dollar amount, insert ``(reduced by $42,676,000)''.
    Page 359, line 20, after the dollar amount, insert ``(increased by $42,676,000)''.
   Offered By: Mr. Rooney  (Cutting second F-35 engine amendment)
    AMENDMENT NO. 2: Page 33, line 16, after the dollar amount, insert ``(reduced by $225,000,000)''.
    Page 34, line 6, after the dollar amount, insert ``(reduced by $225,000,000)''.
    Page 359, line 6, after the dollar amount