The Senate passed a temporary six-month government budget early Saturday morning, just before senators recessed until November. They did not pass a separate Pentagon policy bill in time for the start of the new fiscal year.
The Senate approved and sent to the White House on a continuing resolution that will fund the Pentagon and rest of the federal government from the start of fiscal year 2013, on Oct. 1, through March 27, 2013. The House passed the CR Sept. 13 and President Barack Obama plans to sign it into law.
The CR is generous to the Pentagon, giving it for six months the equivalent of a $519.9 billion year-long budget–more than it was slated to receive in FY ’13 in the Budget Control Act of 2011 and in appropriations bills previously passed by the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Still, the Pentagon will be in a tricky budget situation when FY ’13 begins Oct. 1. The CR does little more than fund the Pentagon–not allowing it to undertake new initiatives like starting new contracts. And the Pentagon also will not have a policy law in place, because the Senate has not yet debated the wide-ranging defense authorization bill.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters last week the Senate could debate the policy-setting defense authorization legislation for a brief period in the lame-duck session of Congress, which follows the Nov. 6 presidential election. The bill could come to the floor for just one or two days, instead of the full week of debate it often commands in the chamber.
SASC staff would have to work with senators behind the scenes to work out deals on amendments they want to offer, so that the bill is not on the Senate floor for long during the busy lame-duck legislative period. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could support this plan, according to Levin.
House and Senate aides also said they are prepared to hold preliminary conference committee talks in October to work out differences between the Senate’s authorization bill–presumably the version the SASC passed May 24–and the version the full House passed May 18.
SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters last Friday he could support that plan, where aides both address Senate floor amendments and reconcile the House and Senate bills during the recess.
“I’ll do anything if it’s reasonable to get an authorization bill,” McCain said, venting that Reid has not yet brought it up for debate. Yet he said some other senators may object to having a truncated Senate floor debate.
“People feel very strongly about certain issues,” McCain said. He said he had heard “conflicting reports” about whether the bill would hit the Senate floor during the lame-duck session, when Congress has to address weighty issues including sequestration budget reductions and tax cuts.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, fared well in the CR because it sets funding during the first six months of FY ’13 at 0.6 percent higher than FY ’12 levels. Thus, in the CR, defense funding is set at the FY ’12 level of $516.7 billion plus a 0.6 percent increase–which totals $519.9 billion.
The CR overall sets funding for the whole government at the equivalent of $1.047 trillion for a full year–which is the FY ’13 budget cap in the Budget Control Act. Yet, to the delight of Pentagon supporters, lawmakers ignored the specific FY ’13 defense funding level in the Budget Control Act, which was $8 billion less.
The $519.9 billion in the CR for defense is larger than the $518.1 billion defense appropriations bill the House passed in July. It’s also more generous than the $511.2 billion measure the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved in August, which heeded the Budget Control Act defense cap.
The CR, for the most part, simply funds the Pentagon without allowing it to do many things–such as start new contracts and kick off production of new weapon systems–that it can do once lawmakers pass a full-blown defense appropriations bill.
The resolution contains legislative provisions, including one banning the Air Force from retiring, divesting, realigning, or transferring any aircraft. The Pentagon’s FY ’13 budget initially sought to retire or divest 163 Air National Guard and 82 Air Force Reserve aircraft over the next five years.