Friday, April 8, the House of Representatives and the Senate worked until almost midnight to draft and pass legislation to keep the government open. This seventh Continuing Resolution cuts another $2 billion from the FY2011 budget in the span of a week. During the week, Congress has pledged to pass an eigth and final Continuing Resolution that will fund the government through September 30. This last piece of budget work must be written and passed before midnight April 15 to avoid a shutdown.

The House Committee on Appropriations has released a list of proposed cuts for this final funding bill, which is available here. NPP released an analysis of the bill on April 13, which explains the cuts in detail. H.R. 1473, as it is currently known, contains $28 billion in cuts, in addition to the $12 billion cut in Continuing Resolutions 1-7; all $40 billion of these cuts come from non-security discretionary funding. Also, all non-security programs, projects, and accounts receive an across-the-board reduction of 0.2%.

A brief selection of cuts in the final FY2011 Continuing Resolution:

• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides nutritious food to mothers and children up to age five, receives a 7% cut, or $504 million.

• State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance is cut by almost a quarter (24%) from FY2010 levels.

• $5.5 billion of the $28 billion savings comes from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

• Future high speed rail funds are eliminated and $400 million in previous funding is rescinded, for a total of $2.9 billion in high speed rail reductions.

After the brusing slog through the FY2011 budget process, the FY2012 budget looms on the horizon. The President submitted his budget proposal to Congress on Valentine's Day (our analysis of that is here). Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, released his “Chairman's markup” of the President's request, which you can find an overview of here. In the next few months, Congress will need to work together to pass a full year budget by September 30, or we could face a repeat of this year's fiasco.

A summary of Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolutions:

Public Law            Dates Applicable                                 Funding Level
PL 111-242          Oct 1 – Dec 3, 2010                          2010 Levels
PL 111-290          Dec 4 – Dec 18, 2010                        2010 Levels
PL 111-317          Dec 19 – 22, 2010                            2010 Levels
PL 111-322          Dec 23, 2010 – Mar 4, 2011              2010 Levels
PL 112-4              Mar 5 – 18, 2011                              $4 bn below 2010
PL 112-6              Mar 19 – Apr 8, 2011                        $6 bn below 2010
PL 112-8              Apr 9 – 15, 2011                               $2 bn below 2010
PL 112-?              Apr 16 – Sep 30, 2011                      $28 bn below 2010