April 5, 2011
Dear Friends,
The latest short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government expires at midnight on Friday. A compromise has not yet been reached because Republicans continue to insist on deep cuts for the last six months of the fiscal year and they do not seem willing to negotiate on anything.
With a government shutdown looming, Republicans last night released their latest cynical proposal to keep the government of the United States at work for its citizens. They have proposed a one week stopgap measure (another CR) that contains $12 billion in cuts to every agency except the Department of Defense. This CR does more than just protect the Defense Department from cuts, it actually INCREASES funding for it by $7.6 billion. Additionally, the CR funds the Defense Department for the rest of the fiscal year while leaving every other federal agency and program facing uncertainty. The Republican proposal also includes anti-choice language.
Here is a link to the latest proposed CR, at this point there is no objective summary of the bill so we are including a link to the bill text: http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/Floor_Text/112-HR1363_xml.pdf
Below is a detailed list of cuts:
Department |
Reduction |
Agriculture |
-$1.4 billion |
Commerce-Science-Justice |
-$430 million |
Energy & Water |
-$632 million |
Military Construction & Veterans Affairs |
-$629.5 million |
Financial Services |
-$417 million |
Homeland Security |
-$1.4 billion |
Interior |
-$1.27 billion |
Labor-Health-Human Services |
-$2.5 billion |
State-Foreign Operations |
-$832 million |
Transportation-Housing-Urban Development |
-$1.5 billion |
Department |
Increase |
Defense |
+ $7.6 billion |
It is unclear when this proposal will come to the floor for a vote, if there are enough votes to pass it, or even if the President will sign it. What is clear is that Republican leadership is not interested in compromise and that’s the reason why this stalemate continues.