Congressional leaders yesterday agreed on a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the first six months of fiscal year 2013 at levels set in the Budget Control Act of 2011.
The House and Senate plan to vote in September on the resolution, which would expire at the end of March 2013. The resolution has the blessing of the White House.
While CRs often continue funding at the previous fiscal year’s level, the one being considered for the first half of FY ’13 would adhere to the funding for FY ’13 set in the Budget Control Act: $1.047 trillion for the entire government.
Continuing resolutions are becoming the norm at the beginning of the federal government’s fiscal year for at least some departments and typically have the effect of slowing spending by agencies until they have more clarity around final spending plans. These spending delays typically show up on the top and bottom lines of federal contractors.
While Congress has decided to punt final decisions on the FY ’13 budget plan until after the presidential inauguration, it still has on the table this year possible action on a long-range federal spending plan to avoid about $1 trillion in automatic budget cuts that would occur over 10 years, an action called sequestration.
Those long-term cuts, which would lop about $500 billion from the Pentagon’s budget over the 10 years, would begin to go into effect in January 2013.