Later today, House and Senate appropriators are expected to release a FY 2012 omnibus spending package carrying up to nine of the remaining FY 2012 spending bills. Leaders in both chambers are hopeful that they can clear the omnibus by the end of this week when current funding expires. However, several policy and spending questions remained unresolved. Specifically, the unresolved issues revolve around the FY 2012 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (HR 3070), the Interior-Environment spending bill (HR 2584), and the Financial Services spending (HR 2434) as negotiators have yet to reach a compromise on issues over efforts to block funding for the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill, policies aimed at reducing environmental regulation, and U.S. trade policy toward Cuba. Reports have indicated that some House Democratic appropriators are in favor of approving a series of full year continuing resolutions rather than agreeing to certain Republican backed policy riders. If lawmakers cannot resolve these issues, they may include continuing resolutions within the omnibus spending package to fund these agencies and departments contained within these three bills at current levels for FY 2012.

Additionally, adding to the challenge of approving the omnibus bill in the House is that more than 100 House Republicans voted against the FY 2012 minibus package that consisted of three bipartisan spending bills that was approved in November. This means that House Republicans are likely to require House Democratic support to pass the agreement, which may strengthen Democrats’ hand in the negotiations over the unresolved issues.

Links: H.R.3070, H.R.2584, H.R.2434