War spending passes, agency funding to follow?

Legislation to fund the troop surge in Afghanistan has been sent to President Barack Obama. But what about funding for FY 2011? Details from The Hill\'s Ian Swa...

By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

The troops will get the financial support they need as the war in Afghanistan continues. Congress has approved funding to pay for the troop increase, despite some lawmakers’ skepticism over the course of the war.

The bill has already passed the Senate. Now it heads to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law.

It was one of six spending bills moved through Senate Appropriations so far for FY 2011.

Ian Swanson, a news editor at The Hill newspaper doesn’t give them very high odds of being signed before October first.

“I would say no way,” said Swanson.

No way will all of them make it, anyhow, by the deadline. I guess there’s a chance that one of them could, but as you know, they’re farther behind than they normally are on the spending bills. Neither the House nor the Senate has passed any spending bills this year. Generally, by the time they get to the August break, the House has passed quite a few of them. That’s, of course, no guarantee for success. No guarantee that they’re going to get them all the way to the President’s desk by the September 30th deadline, but this year they’re so far behind. They’re far behind partly because of these fears, again, about government spending and the budget and real differences between the parties, and even within the parties, about what the levels of spending should be.

While Swanson said there is a possibility that some appropriations bills like the Defense spending bill could pass, it’s way too early to tell which ones will make it and which won’t.

“I think the only thing that feels like a certainty is that we’re going to see a series of CRs, Continuing Resolutions, to keep the government funded in the fall,” said Swanson. “If I had to bet on it, I’d think we’ll see an omnibus at the end of the year, possibly in a lame duck session.”

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