New Stopgap Spending Bill Coming Before FY12 Starts

With the Oct. 1 start of fiscal year 2012 around the corner and none of the spending bills for that year enacted yet, congressional appropriators are again turning to a stopgap funding measure to keep federal agencies operating.

On Sept. 12, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said he planned to introduce a continuing resolution soon. There was no word at press time on how many weeks' funding the bill would provide.

As of Sept. 12, the House had approved six of the 12 appropriations bills funding various departments and agencies for 2012. The Senate had passed just one: the military construction-veterans measure.

The Senate Appropriations Committee held back on most bills until after the Budget Control Act, which sets caps on discretionary spending, became law on Aug. 2. But the Senate panel has picked up its pace. It cleared the agriculture, energy-water and Homeland Security bills on Sept. 7 and was to take up four more on Sept. 15.

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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