Congress Approves Six-Month Continuing Resolution

On September 22, the Senate passed by a vote of 62 to 30 a six-month continuing resolution (CR), H.J. Res. 117, to provide funding for all federally funded programs during the first half of FY 2013, which begins on October 1, 2012.  As described in NCSHA’s September 12 blog post, the CR is based on a total annual spending level of $1.047 trillion, increases funding by 0.6 percent for all federally funded programs, and expires on March 27, 2013.  The House passed the CR on September 13, as reported in an earlier blog post, and the President is expected to sign the legislation.

A CR is necessary to fund federal agencies, including HUD and USDA, because Congress has not completed work on FY 2013 appropriations bills.  See NCSHA’s July 2 blog post for more information on the status of the HUD and USDA FY 2013 appropriations bills.  See NCSHA’s budget chart for program-by-program funding level information.

Congress is now adjourned until after the election.  It may decide to continue its work on final FY 2013 appropriations legislation during the lame duck session that will take place after the election.  However, the CR allows Congress to focus on other issues, such as the looming across-the-board spending cuts and the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and delay final FY 2013 appropriations decisions until next year.