From the office of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski:
The U.S. Senate today approved H.R. 933, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act by a vote of 73 to 26, taking a big step forward in preventing a government shutdown. The Senate bill passed today funds the government through September 30, 2013, the end of the fiscal year. The current continuing resolution expires on March 27, 2013.
“Working across the aisle and across the dome, the Senate has come together to prevent a government shutdown,” said Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). “I am so proud the Senate bill protects national security while meeting compelling human needs. It makes investments in human infrastructure like early childhood education. And it creates jobs today and jobs tomorrow by supporting research and innovation. I thank my Vice Chairman, Senator Shelby, for his support and hard work. I look forward to swift action in the House so we can focus on passing a budget, ending sequestration, and getting back to regular order.”
“This is an important step in breaking from crisis mode in Washington,” said Vice Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). “Chairwoman Mikulski and I set out to prevent a government shutdown, provide flexibility for those implementing budget cuts, and produce a bill that both parties in both chambers can support. It is my hope that the tone we set in meeting these objectives for the current fiscal year will carry over to our work on subsequent appropriations bills. We must continue to work together to replace a last minute, shotgun approach to reducing spending with a deliberate, targeted process.”
The original House CR contained two full bills, for Defense and for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. The Senate bill expands on the House bill, adding three domestic bills, including: Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Homeland Security. In addition, the Senate added a number of critical provisions, to enable the government to meet its mission-critical obligations.
The bill now returns to the House for its consideration.
A link to the text of the bill is here.
Highlights of the Senate Bill
· In Agriculture, the Senate bill funds implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act with an additional $12.8 million not included in the House bill. This is the first major reform of food safety laws in 70 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 48 million people, or one in six Americans, suffer from food-borne illnesses each year.
The amendment also improves access to clean water in rural communities with an additional $250 million not included in the House. This funding will provide an additional 165 rural communities, and 330,000 rural residents, with clean water and waste disposal, creating construction jobs today and improving community health.
· The Commerce, Justice & Science (CJS) bill provides $15 million more than the House CR for Byrne grants, the main Federal tool to help state and local law enforcement. For COPS grants, the Senate CR provides a $20 million increase above the House CR, in order to put nearly 1,500 new police on the beat.
CJS also supports the innovation needed to grow the economy in order to create jobs today and tomorrow. For NSF basic research, the bill provides $221 million more than the House CR. That means 550 more grants, supporting 7,000 scientists, teachers, students, all working to make new discoveries for new products, new companies, and new jobs.
· The Homeland Security bill does more to protect the nation from cyber warfare, one of the greatest national security and economic security threats facing America today, by providing $19 million more than the House to for cyber security.
The bill also provides $33 million in additional support to state and local government for Fire grants to train and equip firefighters. And the Senate bill increases first responder grants by $208 million above the House CR.
· In Labor, HHS, the Senate bill meets compelling human needs and saves lives by providing $71 million more than the House CR for research on cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other devastating diseases
It also expands Child Care and Development Block Grants, providing $50 million more than the House to support care for 9,000 more children from working families and adds $33.5 million to Head Start, giving more kids a jump start on their education.
· For Transportation and Housing, the amendment fully funds highways, transit, and road safety programs at the authorized levels, a difference of almost $700 million.
Another worthless piece of legislation that does nothing to solve any of our problems. Great works Babs. We are so screwed.
Kicking the can down the road, yet again.
While I agree it is a form of kicking the can down the road, they only had a week to work something out, which is not going to be enough time to hash out the differences and get enough people on board to have an actual budget, cuts or no cuts.
At this point, letting the government shut down is not a good idea. With sequestration alone, I personally know of plenty of people who have lost their jobs completely, not just furloughed (private sector). I know of programs, both govt and non profit who serve the needy, who are days or weeks away from shutting down completely, unable to serve the elderly, disabled, veterans, you name it.
That’s now how to run this country, regardless of what we think politically. I was in DC the day before the CR passed and it was obvious people in Congress were anxious to get this over with and move to real business (a budget).
So now the real work begins again. Let’s hope these people can get on the horse do their jobs.
They have had since they last passed a budget in 2008 to figure this out.
The people losing their jobs are doing so so the president can prove a point.
It is going to be way worse when countries refuse to buy any more of our debt. Time to rip the band aid off…
Noble, Honestly, I think they have had a lot longer than a week to work something out.
I usually am on the same page with you. But part of me believes that things have to get a lot worse before enough people will rise up and say “I don’t care what party you belong to if you are an incumbent you are part of the problem and I’m voting for the other person.” Baby and bath water, out they go. And I greatly fear that there is no other viable solution our elected leaders will accept. Tell me I’m wrong.
Nice. Babs’ rallying points are focused about about $1.5 billion more spending with no rallying cry that those increases are offset by decreases elsewhere – at least not that I can see. If someone can please point them out, thank you. How are these increases to be paid? Oh yeah, pass it along to the next generation… I swear anyone who votes for these clowns is stupid beyond words.
When you vote – remember the bipartisan effort means you the taxpayer gets screwed. Dump them all.
Barbie’s speaking again! She is “so proud.” How long have the Democrats been living and working WITHOUT a budget? “08?” Spend-spend & spend. Got my support to SHUT DOWN D.C. and let THEM see the effects of the working TAX PAYER. All are worthless.