Federal Update for March 14

Late last week, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee revealed the details of the next short-term continuing resolution (CR), H.J. Res. 48, which would keep the government funded through April 8.  The current CR expires Friday, March 18.  The new spending measure would cut another $6 billion below current levels.  The package would fulfill the Republican leadership's commitment to cut $2 billion per week with each short-term extension for FY2011.

The CR would cut approximately $3.5 billion by either terminating or reducing 25 programs.  The measure also seeks $2.6 billion in "earmark terminations."

Included in the earmark terminations are cuts of $123 million from research and education activities and $12 million from extension programs of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This short-term measure would also reduce, among other "earmarks", the Research Facilities Construction account at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) by $47 million and the Operations, Research and Facilities account at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) by $99 million.

Funding levels for student aid programs and the largest scientific research agencies are not altered by this CR.

Reports indicate that both leaders of the House and U.S. Senate have preliminarily signed off on this latest short-term CR. Passage is expected prior to expiration of the current CR this Friday evening.

The press release issued by the House Appropriations Committee is available http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=273.  The text of the CR is available on the Rules Committee http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/Floor_Text/hjres48_xml.pdf.

(APLU and the UW System Office of Federal Relations contributed to this report.)