Where Is Congress With Appropriations?
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed legislation Thursday to fund the Pentagon and the legislative branch for fiscal year 2013. Despite this progress, with less than two months to go in the current fiscal year, Congress will be relying on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the first quarter of 2013. House members and senators hope that this would give them time after the November elections to work out final legislation to fund the government.
(RELATED: Continuing Resolutions Through the Years)
The first graphic below shows what stage each chamber has reached in the 12 major appropriations areas so far this year. 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.
