Where Is Congress With Appropriations?

Both the House and the Senate appropriations committees are off to strong starts in the appropriations process for fiscal 2013. Will both chambers pass all 12 major bills before the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30? Probably not. In most years, many key bills are passed well after the start of the new fiscal year, necessitating continuing resolutions to keep the government funded. 

The first graphic below shows what stage each chamber has reached in the 12 major appropriations areas. Note that some bills are considered together as a package, but are separated out here, particularly as parts of continuing resolution. Also, some bills that are introduced at the subcommittee level aren't the same ones that are passed on the House and Senate floors or agreed to in conference.

Is the lack of progress on appropriations legislation unusual? Not really. Below are charts that represent a selection of the federal departments for which Congress appropriates funding for each year. The zero position represents Oct. 1, the first day of the fiscal year, and the blue bars represent the number of days before or after the deadline Congress passed, and the president signed, the bills funding those departments, based on information from the Library of Congress THOMAS website.