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Real Progress
We just received a draft of the House FY2012 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor H) Appropriations bill. This is a bill that is primarily prepared by Chairman Denny Rehberg (R-MT), with heavy input from Full Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) and to a lesser extent Full Appropriations Ranking Democratic Member Norm Dicks (D-WA). As you will remember, markup on this bill has been postponed twice. Originally scheduled in July, it was moved to early September and then in definitely postponed. To refresh your memory, in FY2010 CSBG was funded at $700 million. After the Continuing Resolution last spring, the FY2011 amount is about $680 million. Chairman Harkin's Senate Labor H bill funded CSBG at $678 million. Chairman Rehberg's FY2012 proposed House Labor H bill funds CSBG at...
$678 million!
This is, of course, a great step forward, as this figure is a full $334 million ABOVE the President's request. The next big fight will be on the House approving a continuing resolution (CR) next week that will keep the government funded until November 18th. Some members are saying that this will be contentious as certain "Tea Party" factions of the House Republican Caucus will oppose it on the grounds that there are not enough cuts. After the CR is passed, Congress will work to combine all appropriations bills into one omnibus in November or December. This will also be during the time that Congress attempts to accommodate the work of the "Super Committee" which is tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction measures by November 23rd. We will send another Quik Facts tomorrow with details on other programs in the House Labor H bill.
David Bradley
Executive Director
National Community Action Foundation
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