On March 6, the House passed a spending bill by a vote of 267-151 to fund federal government operations after the current continuing resolution (CR) expires on March 27. The measure (HR 933) would fund most federal agencies through a straightforward continuation of the current CR, but would also include full-year, detailed spending bills for Defense and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs. The bill would leave the March 1 sequester cuts in place for fiscal 2013, but with adjusted spending directions for defense and veterans affairs programs to provide more flexibility and soften the impact of the sequester on high-priority programs in these areas. The bill would set the total discretionary spending level (before sequestration) at $1.043 trillion, consistent with the discretionary caps set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and modified by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2013. Adhering to these limits would allow Congress to avoid a possible “second sequester” that could be triggered on March 27 if current spending levels exceed these caps.

The Administration has not threatened to veto the House measure, but did recommend in a statement last week that Congress work to “refine” the measure to offer more spending flexibility to non-defense programs. The Senate is expected to take up a stopgap spending package this week that contains new spending bills for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Homeland Security, in addition to the Defense and Military Construction-VA bills included in the House measure. Also, the Senate bill may expand the ability of agencies to use reprogramming authority to help mitigate the detrimental effects of the sequester on agency operations. Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has indicated she would like the Senate to pass the measure by the end of this week to permit sufficient time to resolve differences between the two chambers before the current CR expires on March 27.

Links: HR 933; Statement of Administration Policy