House Appropriations Committee Introduces 2012 Continuing Resolution

It’s hard to tell if Congress is getting any closer to the end of the fiscal year 2012 appropriations process, through which Congress will set funding levels for almost every federal education program for the upcoming year. Fiscal year 2012 starts on October 1, 2011 and so far Congress has not passed any of the 12 appropriations bills that typically make up the appropriations process. So, yesterday the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) for fiscal year 2012 appropriations, a stop-gap funding measure that allows federal agencies and programs that Congress funds through the appropriations process to continue operating in the new fiscal year, at least until November 18^th, 2011.

The move is mostly procedural, but there are few points worth noting.

This CR – if enacted – allows federal spending in 2012 to continue at a rate of $1.043 trillion, the amount set in the recent Budget Control Act of 2011, which is $7 billion below 2011 levels.  

Importantly, the CR makes no specific changes to Department of Education spending for 2012 from 2011 levels. The House found the $7 billion in savings specified in the Budget Control Act by making targeted cuts (or rescinding unused funds) to other agencies, sparing education.

However, the fact that the CR funds education programs for a few more months at 2011 levels does not necessarily mean that the Department of Education will have access to all of the fund streams available to it in 2011. Eventually, sometime in the coming months, we expect Congress to finalize the appropriations bills for fiscal year 2012. And they will almost certainly sum up to the $1.043 trillion set in the recent Budget Control Act and reflected in the CR. But it is unlikely that Congress will leave education funding unchanged from 2011 levels in the final bill. In fact, the funding levels Congress provides for individual education programs could change significantly or even be cut entirely in 2012.

Furthermore, the Department of Education tends to spend its funds months after they are appropriated due to the nature of the school calendar, making the temporary funding provided through a CR almost meaningless. For example, the Department of Education has only recently started spending its fiscal year 2011 appropriation for most programs, some 11 months into the fiscal year. The Department won’t begin cutting checks for the grants funded through the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill until next summer.

In the end, this Continuing Resolution is an unsurprising development in this year’s untraditional appropriations process. Although the House has followed the traditional process and approved several appropriations bills, the Senate never passed even a budget resolution setting a limit on total 2012 spending, let alone a single appropriations bill.  Instead, the Senate adopted the $1.043 trillion spending limit set in the Budget Control Act, bypassing the budget resolution process entirely. Now Congress is relying on a Continuing Resolution to buy some extra time to find consensus over 2012 spending and pass what will likely be one large omnibus appropriations bill after the fiscal year has started.

To learn more about the 2012 appropriations process so far, check out the Federal Education Budget Project’s recent issue brief Congressional Budget Action for Fiscal Year 2012 and its Impact on Education Funding. Be sure to check back with Ed Money Watch as this process continues.