House approps releases FY 2012 CR.

With Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 set to start on October 1, the House appropriations committee on Wednesday released a short-term continuing resolution (CR) which would fund federal government operations through November 18. The proposed CR would be funded at a rate of $1.043 trillion—a cut of 1.4 percent compared to enacted FY 2011 funding levels—reflecting the overall discretionary spending caps included in last month’s Budget Control Act (BCA). The CR is expected to be taken up next week.  

There had been some question about whether the House would adopt the BCA spending limits in advancing a CR, particularly given the priority that fiscal conservatives in that chamber have placed on reducing federal spending. The House budget resolution adopted this past April—prior to passage of the BCA—included a much lower discretionary cap, and the appropriations committee has been marking up their individual FY 2012 bills using this lower funding level. However, in a statement accompanying the release of the CR, appropriations chair Harold Rogers (R-KY) indicated that he intended to use the BCA limits going forward, which suggests that the House and Senate may be able to reach agreement on final FY 2012 appropriations relatively quickly. 

The Senate appropriations committee began marking up individual bills using the BCA levels last week, and is slated to take up the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (Labor-H) bill on September 20. The Senate Labor-H bill is expected to include about $300 million in cuts compared to FY 2011 enacted levels; by contrast, the House had proposed more than $18 billion in cuts to those agencies in FY 2012, though the committee never marked up a Labor-H bill. It is possible that the final Labor-H levels will be close to the proposed Senate levels, reducing the risk of further cuts to workforce programs, which lost more than $1 billion in funding in FY 2011. The two chambers will negotiate final levels for all of the appropriations bills—perhaps in an omnibus measure—later this fall or winter.

National Skills Coalition encourages lawmakers to ensure that final FY 2012 appropriations include adequate funding for workforce programs to ensure U.S. workers and businesses can get the skills necessary to rebuild the economy and sustain our nation’s economic competitiveness. We will continue to monitor development relating to federal funding for workforce development and provide updates as new information becomes available.