The House Appropriations Committee released the final Continuing Resolution (CR) funding the federal government for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year. You can see a copy of this legislation and some committee-provided summary information below.

Text of this Continuing Resolution: Final CR bill text

Committee-provided Summary: Final CR committee summary

Committee-highlighted Program Cuts: Final CR committee-highlighted cuts

Our thoughts:

BUDGETARY GIMMICKS
ENERGY
TRANSPORTATION
CORPS OF ENGINEERS

BUDGETARY GIMMICKS

  • Almost $18 billion of the cuts – nearly half of the total – result from “changes in mandatory programs,” or CHIMPS in budget parlance. While these are real cuts in FY2011, this is mandatory spending (like Social Security or Medicare) that is not controlled on an annual basis by Congress. This means that these cuts are temporary, and higher spending levels will resume in FY2012, limiting the future deficit reducing power of these cuts.
     
  • Uses the balance in the Crime Victims Fund — which is earmarked for use only to compensate victims of crime, is funded entirely with non-taxpayer funds such as forfeited bail payments, and whose payments to victims are capped so as to ensure ongoing balances in future years – as a $4.9 billion “cut.” This is akin to saying you are debt free because your mortgage payment could cover your credit card balance, but ignoring the fact that the mortgage is due in a week.
     
  • Cuts $630 million in orphan earmarks, so-called because they remain entirely or largely unspent a decade or more after they were passed. Often, these funds remained unspent because there were technical problems in the description (giving money to State Road 1 instead of U.S. 1 for example) or because the recipient simply didn’t want to build the project (earmarks often provide a very tiny amount of money for what can be very large, expensive projects). As a result, these funds were never going to be spent anyway, so it’s unfair to call this a cut in any real sense of the word.
     
  • Cuts $6.2 billion from the “Periodic Census” account in the Commerce Department. While this really does save $6.2 billion for taxpayers, it’s hardly worth celebrating as a sign of serious political conviction. The census is, after all, periodic, happening every ten years. Since the cuts in this CR are based on FY2010 levels, the year the Census actually took place, any budget would rightly reduce the funds for the Census since the government won’t be going door to door and counting everyone up. Reducing funds to the Census Bureau as it winds down operations after taking its once a decade census is about as non-controversial as a cut could be. The census cut represent more than 16% of the total in cuts.
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ENERGY

  • Included in the myriad of cuts released today, as part of the appropriations agreement to avoid a government shutdown, was the denial of any new money for the DOE loan guarantee program. The President’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request had included a $36 billion increase in the loan guarantee cap for nuclear reactors and $500 million appropriation for renewable and energy efficiency technologies credit subsidy costs. Earlier versions of the Continuing Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2011 rescinded $25 billion in budget authority from the renewable and fossil fuel technologies (excluding nuclear), but today’s version leaves the existing budget authority fully intact.
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TRANSPORTATION

  • While we’re happy from a policy standpoint to see the $630 million in unused transportation earmarks get wiped off the books, we also included this in our gimmicks list because it’s not a cut in any sense, except in the arcane world of Washington budgeting. These funds weren’t going anywhere, so you can’t really call this a cut.
     
  • We’re also happy to see the Rail Line Relocation and Improvement Program included in the cuts, as we have supported this cut in the past. This could have been a deeper cut, however, because as the President has pointed out, it’s a duplicative program that could have been zeroed out. Some funding does remain for this program, however.
     
  • The cuts include a zeroing out of the Surface Transportation Priorities account, which was nothing more than a transportation slush fund. The entire program was earmarked.

CORPS OF ENGINEERS

 
Corps of Engineers  Civil Works Compared to FY10 Enacted (millions) Compared to FY11 President's Request (millions)
Investigations -$33 +$23
Construction* -$238 +$103
MS River and Tributaries -$98 +$25
Operations and Maintenance -$30 +$10
  • While this CR reduces funding for the Civil Works budget of the Army Corps o f Engineers compared to FY2010, Congress yet again boosts spending above the President's budget request.
  • *Note, the table provided by the House Appropriations Committee incorrectly states the Construction account cuts in the CR are -$414 million compared to FY10 enacted and -$75 million compared to the President's request.
     
  • The CR eliminates project-specific legislative language (aka earmarks).

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