This month, Congress completed the FY13 Appropriations Process, albeit halfway through the fiscal year.
Failure of Congress and the President to agree to a budget deal in February led to the implementation of the $85 billion discretionary budget sequester on March 1.
This month marked the end of the 112th Congress, which worked up to the last moment to pass legislation on New Year’s Day to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $450k.
Congress was out of session for most of October after having passed a stopgap spending measure to fund the federal government through the end of March 2013 at current year levels.
During the month of September, much of the efforts of Congress have focused on budgetary measures for the 2013 Fiscal Year.
Earlier this month, the President signed into law H.R. 5872, which requires the administration to provide a report within 30 days detailing how it would implement the $109 billion sequester called for in the Budget Control Act of 2011.
A government shutdown will be avoided this fall as Congressional leaders agreed to vote on a continuing resolution for the six months of Fiscal Year 13, funding federal programs at approximately current year funding levels.
Despite this month’s Congressional action on the FY13 federal budget, the prognosis for the annual appropriations process is still up in the air.
This month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a vote of 247-163 the fiscal year 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill (HR 5326), which funds the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other related agencies for the next fiscal year.
