By Larry Jones
September 17, 2012

By a strong bipartisan vote (329 – 91), the House passed a temporary funding measure on September 13 that will keep most federally funded programs operating at their current levels through March 27, 2013. The bill is a compromise worked out between the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) and House Speaker John Boehner (IL). The compromise will enable the federal government to avoid a shutdown and break in funds for federal programs on October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. The Senate is expected to approve the measure the week of September 17 and send it to the White House where it is expected to be signed.

The new continuing resolution will fund defense and domestic discretionary programs at an annual rate of $1.047 trillion, which is $8 billion more than the $1.039 trillion available for the current fiscal year and $19 billion more than the $1.028 trillion approved by the House earlier this year for fiscal year 2013. The $8 billion increase in the continuing resolution will allow a government-wide across-the-board increase of 0.6 percent. There is already speculation that, because of partisan differences, when funds under this continuing resolution runs out next March, Congress will simply extend it for another six months to fund federal programs through the end of the fiscal year.

Partisan differences over revenue and spending issues have made it very difficult for congressional leaders to make much progress on passing the regular fiscal year 2013 spending bills. With no agreement in sight, congressional leaders decided to put off action on difficult budget decisions until after the November Presidential and Congressional elections. This will give members of both political parties time to go home, campaign for reelection, and come back with more time after the elections to work through their differences and try to complete action on the regular full 12-month spending bills.