Budget Matters Blog

After months of inaction on the federal budget, Congress is now wrapping up work on two – the budget for fiscal year 2013, which began back on Oct. 1, 2012, and the first steps in a budget for fiscal 2014, which will begin on Oct. 1, 2013.

Since the beginning of FY2013 the government has been operating under a stop-gap spending bill – known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) – which funds the operations of federal agencies that haven’t had their specific annual budgets enacted by Congress. A CR allows any part of the government without a specific funding bill – known as ...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled votes on a 2013 spending bill for this week

Photo licensed under Creative Commons

TL;DR

No. There is no federal budget for fiscal 2013, which began on Oct. 1, 2012.

What's Going On?

Last week I explained that the federal government is operating on a temporary spending bill called a continuing resolution instead of a real budget for fiscal 2013. That continuing resolution expires on March 27 – just a week from today. If lawmakers don't pass new legislation, the federal government will shut down on March 28. An extra complication in ...

President Obama in February 2012, the last time he released a budget proposal/ White House flickr

There's No Federal Budget

News about the federal budget is almost impossible to follow, so here’s some straight talk about whether or not there’s a federal budget for 2013 and why things are even worse than they seem.

There hasn’t been a real budget in place since Oct. 1, 2012, which was the start of the government’s fiscal year 2013. (If you’ve heard that we haven’t had a budget in four years, that’s true only for ...

Image courtesy of acmoraes

Monday House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) introduced a bill that would extend the current stop-gap funding for government operations through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. The entire federal government has been operating without a budget since fiscal year 2013 began back on Oct. 1, and the current temporary spending bill – known officially as a continuing resolution (CR) – is set to expire on March 27.The legislation introduced yesterday would extend the current spending bill through the end of the fiscal year – in other words, Congress is proposing to go through ...

Greg from Portland, Oregon e-mailed last week and asked, “The House just passed a major spending bill. Does this mean the big funding cuts for education I’ve been hearing about won’t happen? I’m a teacher, and we’ve been hearing all sorts of scary [stuff] about these cuts.”What Greg is referring to is the automatic across-the-board spending cuts – known as “sequestration” – that are scheduled to go into effect at the end of the year. The short answer to your question, Greg, is “no, the cuts may still happen.”

Here’s the longer answer. Each year Congress ...

The House, the Senate, and President Obama agreed on something. Surprised?

Technically, they agreed to agree on something in the future. Several weeks ago, leaders of the House and Senate announced they’re planning to pass a continuing resolution in September in order to fund the federal government past Sept. 30, which is the last day of fiscal year 2012. If lawmakers don’t pass any spending legislation by that date, the government will shut down on Oct. 1 when fiscal 2013 begins. So, the good news is there won’t be a government shutdown. That’s a good thing ...

On July 31 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced that they had reached an agreement on a temporary spending bill – known as a “continuing resolution” (CR) – that will fund government operations for six months starting when the new fiscal year begins on October 1. According to Senator Reid the White House will support the agreement. Speaker Boehner said Congress will vote on the actual legislation in September, after the annual August recess.

Each year Congress must enact, and the President sign into law, twelve appropriations bills which provide the majority of funding for ...

With the end of the current fiscal year rapidly approaching, what many Washington watchers have long predicted appears to be true – Congress will not act on next year’s budget by the Oct. 1 deadline.“But wait,” you’re saying, “October is a long way from now. How can you be sure?”The numbers tell the story.If you look at the congressional calendar you can find out when the House or Senate plan to be in session, known as “legislative days.” These are days on which official business happens. Legislative days can be added at any time, but here ...

Just like last year, the new fiscal year began on October 1, 2011 with no federal budget in place. And just like last year, the U.S. government is being funded through a Continuing Resolution (CR) – temporary spending legislation that provides funding at current levels for any federal agency whose annual appropriations bill has not yet been enacted by Congress. And yes, just like last year, the new fiscal year began with none – as in zero – of the twelve annual appropriations bills enacted.Hopefully, that is where the similarities end. Hopefully, but doubtful. If there is to be a FY2012 ...

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 ...