Congressional leaders announced late last Friday they reached a deal that would prevent the federal government from shutting down that night at midnight, after they agreed to contentious issues including the level of defense funding for the next six months.
Congress then passed another continuing resolution (CR) temporarily funding the government until it finalizes and approves the full-year budget this week. President Barack Obama on Saturday then signed that latest CR, which runs “through” this upcoming Friday, April 15, according to a White House statement. The new full-year plan will cut more than $38 billion in overall federal spending and provide less Pentagon funding than previously approved by the House.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats remained at odds over a fiscal year 2011 budget for the Department of Defense (DoD) and rest of the federal agencies up until the final moments. The level of defense spending for the remainder of FY ’11, which ends Sept. 30, was one of the final sticking points in negotiations. The final FY ’11 federal budget, which the appropriations committees will unveil this week before the chambers pass it, reportedly allocates $513 billion for the Pentagon.
A short-term CR funding the government in fiscal year 2011 largely at FY ’10 levels expired last Friday at midnight. If not budget legislation was approved by midnight, aspects of DoD were poised to shut down.
But shortly before 11 p.m. last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced they reached an accord.
“We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President, (Barack Obama),” they said in a joint press statement. “We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s (FY) 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short- term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings.”
The House passed a one-week CR last Thursday, via a mainly party-line 247-181 vote, that has a complete FY ’11 defense appropriations bill attached to it. However, Reid rejected the legislation and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued a statement suggesting Obama would veto it, because he wants Congress to pass a budget for the entire government.
The House-passed legislation contained $515.8 billion in defense funding, which amounts to 2.9 billion less than Obama’s FY ’11 request, yet a 1.5 percent, or $7.6 billion, increase over FY ’10 levels. A now-moot Senate Appropriations Committee bill unveiled last month called for a slightly-smaller $513.6 billion defense budget.