House Passes Two-Week CR; Dodging Gov’t Shutdown Now Up To Senate

March 01, 2011 5:09 PM

ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports: 

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday afternoon to cut about $4 billion from government spending, passing a two-week extension to the continuing resolution and -- for now –- will likely avoid a government shutdown. 

The bill easily passed by a bipartisan count of 335-91, with more than 100 House Democrats voting to approve the measure just days before the current spending package is set to expire on Friday. 

The spending bill cuts about $1.24 billion from eight programs that President Obama had proposed be cut from his 2012 budget, while also eliminating $2.7 billion in earmarks. The bill also funds government operations through midnight on March 18.

As ABC News’ Matt Jaffe reported earlier Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has signaled the Senate will vote on the House’s two-week CR in the next 48 hours in order to buy the House and Senate more time to work out a compromise on a long-term solution.

“These [cuts] are our programs, so we’ll pass this and then we’ll look to funding the government on a long-term basis,” Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “The sooner we get this short-term funding of the government done, the quicker we can move to a long-term CR.”

104 Democrats - including the House’s No. 2 Democrat, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen - joined the Republican majority in supporting the bill. 

Six Republicans – Reps. Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Justin Amash, Louie Gohmert, and Walter Jones – voted against the short-term spending package. 

King, a proponent of health care repeal who voted for the longer CR, tweeted moments before the vote on his Twitter page @SteveKingIA that he would “vote ‘NO’ on the two week CR because some of ObamaCare is funded by it and the Pence amendment to block Planned Parenthood is not in.” 

The House had previously passed a seven-month spending bill Feb. 19, which blocked funding to implement health care reform and also banned federal funding from Planned Parenthood, but Senate Democrats have been defiant, resisting calls to bring the long-term measure to the floor for a vote. 

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said it’s now up Senate Democrats to “cut spending and reduce the size of government for small businesses to create jobs.” 

“With the passage of this short-term measure, the House has now sent two funding resolutions to the Senate, yet we are still waiting for a response,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “I’m hopeful President Obama and Senate Democrats will join us in making the difficult decisions necessary to get our country back on track.”

CONTINUING RESOLUTION UNVEILED TODAY WILL CONTINUE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, CUT SPENDING

February 25th, 2011 - - Continuing Resolution Unveiled Today Will Continue Government Operations, Cut Spending WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Appropriations Committee today unveiled a short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to provide funds to keep the government operating over the next two weeks until a compromise can be reached on a year-long funding bill. The CR, which includes $4 billion in spending reductions, will prevent a government-wide shut down that would occur on March 4th – if no agreement between the House, Senate and White House is reached on a longer-term funding bill. The CR contains funding to allow all government agencies and programs to continue operating at the current level of spending for the next two weeks, until March 18, 2011, except for several programs that will be terminated or cut. A statement from Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers follows: “A government shutdown would halt critical and necessary services and programs that Americans across the country rely on, and it is not reflective of the kind of leadership that the American people expect or deserve of their representatives in Congress. While I would have greatly preferred that the Senate act on the hard-fought and thoughtfully crafted funding legislation that the House passed last week – which saves the taxpayers $100 billion compared to the President’s request – it is clear that more time is needed. This short term, two week CR will provide more time, while cutting $4 billion in spending as a symbol of our continued commitment to getting our nation’s fiscal house in order. “It is my hope that this CR can be passed quickly in the next week and that the President will sign it before the March 4th deadline. It is also my hope that it will garner broad support, given the short timeframe for action and given that these spending cuts have been previously supported in a bipartisan way by Members of the House and Senate, as well as the White House. It is critically important that we do what the Democrat majority failed to do – complete the budget process, pass funding bills in an open and transparent fashion, reduce spending to rein in our deficits and debt, and do this all on time so that we avoid these budget uncertainties in the future.” A summary of the $4 billion in cuts included in the two week, short term CR follows: Program Cuts/Terminations: This CR terminates funding for eight programs. These terminations include: • Election Assistance Grants = -$75 million. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. The states have yet to spend large amounts of funding provided by this program, and both the House and Senate proposed eliminating the program last year. • Broadband Direct Loan Subsidy (U.S. Department of Agriculture) = -$29 million. No funds were requested for this program in the President’s budget request. This program is duplicative of several other federal programs, and the Agriculture Inspector General has uncovered abuses and inconsistencies in the program as well as a lack of focus on the rural communities it is intended to serve. • Smithsonian Institution Legacy Fund = -$30 million. No funds were requested for this program in the President’s budget request. The Legacy Fund was intended as a one-time only appropriation for revitalization of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building. Sufficient private contributions were raised and the Legacy Fund monies were released in December, 2010. • Striving Readers program (U.S. Department of Education) = -$250 million. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. This program has a large amount of unused funds, and is essentially duplicative of the Title 1 program that provides $14 billion annually in reading assistance to at-risk students. • LEAP program (U.S Department of Education) = -$64 million. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. This program has accomplished its original objective of “stimulating” all states to establish need-based student grant programs, and federal aid is no longer required. • Even Start (U.S. Department of Education) = -$66 million. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. Three national evaluations have found that participants in this program make no greater literacy gains than non-participants. The Office of Management and Budget has identified this program as “ineffective.” • Smaller Learning Communities (U.S. Department of Education) = -$88 million. This termination was requested in the President’s budget request. Both governmental and non-governmental research has shown no evidence that creating smaller learning communities within high schools makes a difference in academic achievement. • Highways – Additional General Fund spending (Federal Highways Administration) = -$650 million. No funds were requested for this use in the President’s budget request. This one-time, non-recurring funding addition was provided in fiscal year 2010 and distributed to all States through the existing, authorized highway formula. Removing these funds will have no impact on the authorized, mandatory side of the highway program and its limitation of obligations. TOTAL Terminations Savings = $1.24 billion Earmark Terminations: The CR eliminates funding that was made available in fiscal year 2010 that would have gone to earmarked programs and projects. These earmark cuts include: Energy and Water -$56 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Investigations -$341million - Army Corps of Engineers, Construction -$80 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi River -$39 million - Army Corps of Engineers, Operations and Maintenance -$38 million - Bureau of Reclamation, Water and Related Resources -$292 million - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) -$13 million - Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -$3 million - Nuclear Energy Research and Development activities -$37 million - Fossil Energy Research -$77 million - Office of Science – science research -$4 million - Defense Environmental Cleanup -$3 million - Other Defense Activities -$13 million - National Nuclear Security Administration - Office of the Administrator -$0.3 million - Nuclear Nonproliferation - equipment upgrades Homeland Security -$1 million - DHS Undersecretary for Management – logistics training -$1 million - Customs and Border Patrol Salaries and Expenses – solar powered batteries program -$43 million - Customs and Border Patrol Construction – facility construction projects -$1 million - Transportation Security Administration – National “Safe Skies” Alliance -$4 million - Coast Guard Operations and Expenses – Operations System Center -$17 million - Coast Guard Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements – shore construction projects -$4 million - Coast Guard – alteration of bridges -$20 million - National Programs and Protection Directorate – cyber-security and infrastructure projects -$5 million - Office of Health Affairs – bio-preparedness -$103 million - FEMA State and Local Programs – university and emergency operations center grants -$25 million - FEMA Pre-disaster Mitigation Grants -$41 million - Science and Technology – research projects Labor, HHS, Education -$49 million – Training and Employment Services -$1 million – Mine Safety and Health Administration -$40 million – Labor Department, Salaries and Expenses -$397 million – Health Resources and Services -$21 million – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -$15 million – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration -$3 million – CMS, program management -$21 million – Children and Families Services program -$1 million – Child Care Development Block Grant -$6 million – Administration on Aging -$2 million – HHS Office of the Secretary, departmental management -$5 million – School Improvement Programs -$229 million – Department of Education – Innovation and Improvement -$32 million – Safe Schools and Citizenship Education -$22 million – Special Education -$5 million Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research -$129 million – Higher Education -$16 million – Institute of Museum and Library Services Legislative Branch -$0.2 million - Library of Congress Salaries and Expenses – digitalization program Transportation, Housing and Urban Development -$22 million - HUD Neighborhood Initiatives -$173 million - HUD Economic Development Initiative -$293 million - Surface Transportation priorities -$25 million - Rail Line Relocation TOTAL Earmark Savings = $2.7 billion TOTAL CR Spending Cuts = $4.01 billion Note: This CR legislation is scheduled to be on the House floor on Tuesday next week. For a copy of the bill text, please visit http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/legislativetext/March-18-CR_xml.pdf.