Obama Signs 15-Day Spending Stopgap
Federal programs, including construction accounts, will be funded for 15 more days, thanks to a newly enacted stopgap spending measure.
Federal programs, including construction accounts, will be funded for 15 more days, thanks to a newly enacted stopgap spending measure.
President Obama signed the new continuing resolution (CR) on Dec. 4. The measure extends funding for departments and agencies through Dec. 18, generally at their fiscal 2010 levels.
Final congressional approval came late on Dec. 2, when the Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent. The House had approved the bill one day earlier, on a 239-178 vote.
The new CR succeeds a stopgap that expired on Dec. 3.
That short-term spending measure became necessary when Congress was unable to approve any of the 12 regular 2011 appropriations bills by Oct. 1, the start of that fiscal year.
A congressional aide says that the two-week CR would give the House and Senate more time to try to address fiscal 2011 spending before Congress adjourns later in December.
The staffer says that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is "cautiously optimistic" that he will be able to pass an omnibus appropriations bill for the rest of fiscal 2011. Spending levels in an omnibus presumably would vary from 2010 levels.
A backup plan would be a further CR stopgap at 2010 spending levels through Sept. 30.
