Here we are on November 15, six weeks after the FY 2012 federal fiscal year began. The Congress still has not passed a single appropriations bill for the current fiscal year. But, there has been some progress! Believe it or not, last night House and Senate Appropriators on the conference committee released a "minibus" appropriations package. When the Congress deals with appropriations bills collectively, rather than separately, they call it an omnibus. When they combine just a few, they call it a minibus.
The package released last night, and scheduled for a vote on the House floor tomorrow, contains three spending bills: Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Transportation, HUD. It also contains another continuing resolution that moves the deadline for completing the remaining nine appropriations bills to December 16 (remember, these were all supposed to be completed by Oct. 1).
So, there has been some progress. Because the Congress has the ability to use CR's, it can keep moving the goalposts. I still would bet that if these bills get wrapped up before the end of the year, it will happen at the very last minute--right before the families of the Congressmen start wanting them home for Christmas.
While I'm still sort of paying attention to how the process is moving, I haven't missed being in the weeds of the process. I don't have to read the bills if I don't feel like it. Unless I'm having trouble sleeping, I probably won't this year.
If you are interested in seeing what is included in the minibus, you can check out the Committee's information here: http://appropriations.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=268919.
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