Posts Tagged ‘appropriations’

With the $85 billion sequester for fiscal 2013 going ahead, the main hope for mitigating it this year will come as Congress takes up a new continuing resolution to keep the government running past March 27. As long as Democrats insist on a balanced approach to replacing the across-the-board spending reductions that includes alternate cuts as well as tax increases, the two parties almost certainly will not strike a deal to eliminate them …

The House introduced a spending measure Monday that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year while restoring some of the military’s operations and maintenance funding shortfall that has prompted the services to drastically curtail spending on readiness activities through the end of fiscal 2013. The legislation — which includes individual appropriation bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs along with a continuing resolution for the remainder of the government — would shift $10.4 billion into DOD’s operations and maintenance accounts to fund priorities such as training, weapons maintenance, civilian personnel and the defense health program that would be threatened under a full-year continuing resolution …

President Obama on Friday said he would accept a continuing resolution to keep the government open beyond March 27 that does not offset the sequester, making it unlikely that either party will threaten a government shutdown over the measure. The stopgap bill funding the last six months of fiscal 2013 would need to provide $1.043 trillion in federal spending, the cap set in the August 2011 agreement to raise the debt ceiling, Obama said …

President Obama signed an order Friday night to carry out the $85 billion sequester of fiscal 2013 spending, making official the across-the-board spending cuts that are widely projected to undercut military readiness. Along with the order, the Office of Management and Budget submitted a report to Congress detailing the cuts for each agency. Over the course of the entire fiscal year, the sequester requires a 7.8 percent reduction in discretionary defense spending, or $43 billion …

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 …