CGA NEWS
(3-5-13)
To: CGA
From: A۰P۰L۰U Congressional and Governmental Affairs Staff
House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) yesterday to continue government operations until the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2013. The legislation (H.R. 933) includes a full-year FY2013 Defense Appropriations bill and a full-year Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. The House Rules Committee will meet on the bill tonight with the full House expected to vote by 1 p.m. on Wednesday on the rule and the bill.
While normal spending bills are included for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the CR will extend funding for other government agencies at last year’s levels but include a 0.098% across-the-board reduction “to ensure that aggregate spending in the Act complies with the discretionary spending limits in the Budget Control Act of 2011.” The bill’s top-line discretionary spending is set at $1.043 trillion. It is on top of these funding levels that the federal departments and agencies will be subject to sequestration cuts.
The bill text, the explanatory statement and a summary are available. A summary of amendments to the bill is also attached.
In terms of the DoD, HR. 933 provides $70 billion, $2.5 billion below last year’s level and $521 million above the President’s request, for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies.
The White House has issued a Statement of Administration Policy stating that they would like to work with Congress to improve the bill. They note that by letting the majority of federal agencies to remain at last year’s levels, it “will impede their ability to provide services to Americans and efficiently allocate funding to key programs including those in infrastructure, clean energy, education, and research and development.”
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
Follow us on Twitter: @APLU_GovAffairs