Congress has reached an agreement at the midnight hour on an omnibus appropriations bill to provide funding for federal agencies and programs for the remaining nine months of fiscal year (FY) 2012. Only three FY 2012 appropriations bills have been enacted , leaving most federal programs funded under a Continuing Resolution (CR) at 1.5 percent below FY 2011 levels. The agreement was reached late last night, December 15; the CR expires today, December 16. The House approved the bill today by a vote of 296-121; the Senate will vote on it later today or tomorrow. The House has also passed a short-term CR (through December 23) as a precautionary measure to keep the federal government operating in case the Senate is not able to complete action on the appropriations bill. The short-term CR would have to be passed by the Senate as well.
The bill provides funding for what would normally be nine separate appropriations bills. It is attached to the Military Construction-Veterans Administration appropriations bill, HR 2055; the Conference Report is House Report 112-331.
We attach the Conference Report’s funding charts for the Bureau of Indian Affairs/Bureau of Indian Education and the Indian Health Service. Programs, projects and activities funded under the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations section (Division E) of the bill will be reduced by 0.16 percent below the amount shown in the charts or amounts in the conference or committee reports. Other programs have differing across-the-board reductions, i.e., programs under the Labor-HHS-Education division will be reduced by 0.189 percent.
The House and Senate are also scheduled to vote on H. Con. Res. 94, legislation that would offset the costs of disaster assistance by reducing funding in the omnibus appropriations bill by an additional 1.83 percent. As expected the House approved H. Con. Res. 94 (by a vote of 255-165) but it is uncertain whether the Senate will agree to it.
We will provide detailed reports on FY 2012 appropriations for various federal agencies, including the BIE/BIA, IHS, HHS, and Education in the near future. In the meantime, please let us know if we may provide additional information regarding the FY 2012 appropriations.
