Category: Budget

The House is not in session today. The Senate’s in at 2:00pm and will hold a procedural vote on the nomination of Robert E. Bacharach of Oklahoma to be United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate then will turn to S 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. 

As reported last week, support is growing for a six-month continuing resolution (CR), which will delay FY 2013 spending decisions until next year and free up time during the lame-duck session for lawmakers to deal with expiring tax cuts and the budget sequester. House Republicans are expected to introduce the measure in September, when Congress returns from its five-week August recess, with a goal of averting a government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins October 1^st. However, the details, including funding levels, still need to be worked out.

House and Senate leaders appear to have reached a deal on a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government for six months beyond the start of the federal fiscal year on October 1^st.  The CR would extend current funding levels through March 2013.  The effort, if approved by Congress, will avert any threats of a government shutdown just a month before the November elections. 

Details of the CR will likely be released early next week but it is not yet clear when the House and Senate might vote on the measure.  Both chambers are scheduled to recess on August 3^rd and won’t return to Capitol Hill until the second week in September.  And the House is already scheduled to take another break during the last week in September, leaving only 8 full working days in September (taking into account the Jewish holidays).  The CR will need to be approved by September 30^th.  

The rest of the “fiscal cliff” – the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, the doc fix, and automatic cuts that were part of the debt limit deal (sequester) – still loom with no deal in sight before the post-election lame-duck session.  However, this potential agreement on continuing federal government spending would take at least one crisis off the table for the lame duck.

What does this mean for UW?  Federal agencies will face uncertainty about their funding – even with the CR – so many may hold back on releasing grant announcements or otherwise act conservatively with their funding.  And, depending on the outcome of the November elections, Republicans could gain more control in Congress or the White House and then advance their priorities to drastically cut discretionary spending to protect or shore up defense spending.  So, while the 6-month CR takes one issue off the table for the lame duck session it does not create much certainty for federal agencies or the research universities that they fund.

We may soon learn more about how the scheduled automatic budget cuts, or sequester, will affect federal programs. Yesterday, the Senate passed a House measure (HR 5872) giving the Obama administration 30 days to describe its plans for implementing the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts scheduled to go into effect beginning in January. The measure had broad bi-partisan support, passing the Senate unanimously after having passed the House last week in a 414-2 vote. Republicans pushed the bill as a way to highlight what they say will be a devastating reduction to the military budget. Democrats also backed the proposal as a way to highlight what the cuts would mean, including the portion that will come from domestic programs supporting education, health and human services, and scientific research. President Obama is expected to sign the bill.