The House Appropriators Committee this week introduced legislation that will fund the federal government through Friday November 18. The measure, known as a continuing resolution, is necessary to keep the government open while legislators finish their appropriations work for fiscal year 2012.
The House has passed six of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Senate has passed only one. The House is expected to consider the continued resolution the week of September 19; the Senate is expected to take up the measure by the end of the next week. If passed, the six-week continuing resolution would fund the government at a rate proportional to the $1.043 trillion discretionary spending cap for fiscal year 2012 that Congress and the White House agreed to in the Budget Control Act, representing a 1.4-percent reduction from the fiscal year 2011 level.
