Posts Tagged ‘appropriations’

Early indications are that Senate Democrats won’t turn the March 27 deadline for passing a new stopgap funding measure into a showdown with their counterparts over restoring, or at least mitigating, $85 billion in across-the-board cuts set to be imposed today. Since the deal at the beginning of the year to avert the fiscal cliff was reached, many lawmakers have been pointing to the negotiations over the next fiscal 2013 continuing resolution as the best opportunity to address the sequester …

The White House is not expected to submit its fiscal 2014 budget request to Congress until March 25, putting the administration’s release of its spending proposal seven weeks behind the date mandated in law. The Obama administration has not stated when it plans to complete the massive document, but agency officials have been told to prepare for a March 25 release …

The White House released new documents over the weekend depicting the state-by-state impacts of defense and domestic cuts stemming from sequestration in its latest move to pressure Republican leaders to accept some tax increases as part of a deal to avert across-the-board spending reductions scheduled to be carried out starting on Friday. Based on temporary furloughs of DOD civilian workers, Virginia would be hurt the most with 90,000 employees expected to lose up to 22 days of work over the last seven months of fiscal 2013 …

The House Appropriations Committee is expected shortly to unveil its plan to fund the federal government beyond March 27 through a combination of a new continuing resolution along with appropriations bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs. The stopgap measure for the second half of fiscal 2013 would not offer additional spending for the Pentagon but possibly would provide officials flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed and make other changes that normally would be restricted under a continuing resolution …

A continuing resolution being put together in the House is expected to offer the Defense Department the flexibility to move funds across accounts as a way to help officials deal with the severe funding constraints caused by sequestration. The bill, which would fund the federal government past March 27, largely would extend fiscal 2012 spending laws, but also would include appropriations bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs. The measure would provide the Pentagon some flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed and make other changes that normally would be restricted under a stopgap spending bill …

The House Appropriations Committee has begun drafting a continuing resolution to fund the government after March 27, a strong indication that Congress will not be moving any of the 12 individual spending bills for fiscal 2013. Congressional leaders most likely will fund the remainder of the fiscal year through another six-month stopgap measure, but no decision has been made yet …

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pressed lawmakers to reverse sequestration, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that allowing the automatic defense cuts to go into effect March 1 “would be a shameful, irresponsible act.” Panetta said the department began preparing last month for the looming spending reductions because lawmakers began saying they were willing to let the across-the-board reductions go forward …

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday he plans to move legislation to replace the automatic, government-wide spending reductions with a mix of alternate cuts and new revenue from eliminating tax loopholes for corporations and upper-income Americans. The plan almost certainly will conflict with a measure House Republicans are considering, which likely will rely on changes to entitlement programs to replace the sequester …

In a contentious, eight-hour hearing Thursday, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) defended his past record, and, while struggling at times to explain some of his positions, President Obama’s nominee to become the next defense secretary appeared to remain on course to helm the Pentagon. Hagel rejected the claim that he supports sequestration, saying, instead, that he agrees with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s stance that the deep, across-the-board spending reductions scheduled to take effect next month are a bad idea …

The White House likely won’t be finished preparing its fiscal 2014 budget request until March, putting its release four or more weeks behind schedule. “Passbacks” — the point at which the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submits drafts of the proposed budget to agencies ahead of one or more rounds of negotiations — only began this week. They usually occur in late November. As a result, officials probably will need until March to complete the budget, reported CQ News. On Tuesday a DOD official said the draft budget it received from OMB was incomplete, leaving a number of outstanding issued to be addressed. The White House is supposed to submit the annual budget to Congress by the first Monday in February, which is Feb. 4 this year.