Appropriations End Game Still A Question Mark

On Tuesday December 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee released their $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2011.  The bill, which includes all 12 annual appropriations bills along with over $8 billion in earmarks, faces an uncertain future in the Senate with Republican leadership and rank-and-file Republicans objecting to the bill en masse. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that he will bring the omnibus up for consideration by the full Senate prior to the expiration of the current continuing resolution (CR) at midnight on December 18. However, with Republicans and several Democrats likely to oppose the bill, its chances for garnering the 60 votes for passage are unclear.  Even if the Senate gets the 60 votes and sends the bill to the House it will face similar hurdles to passage with what will be likely unanimous Republican opposition.  The House as already passed a CR that funds the federal government at current levels through fiscal year 2011.  The Senate also has the option to consider the House-passed CR, which would be the most expeditious resolution, or take up a two month extension of the current CR that has been offered by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).   If the Senate fails to act on any FY 2011 funding bill, Congress must pass another short term CR to avoid a government shutdown.  The Senate omnibus provides $41.8 billion for the  federal-aid highway program, a $669 million dollar increase from FY2010 and the House passed CR, and $10.6 billion for the Federal Transit Administration, $135 million less than FY 2010 and the House-passed CR.  The bill reduces high-speed rail grants from $2.5 billion in FY 2010 to $1 billion for FY 2011 and provides $500 million for DOT discretionary multimodal grants (“TIGER II”). On the aviation side, the Federal Aviation Administration would see a $529 million increase from FY 2010 to $16.52 billion in FY 2011. Funding for the Airport Improvement Program is frozen at $3.5 billion. The bill also funds EPA’s Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs $1.9 billion and $1.2 billion respectively, with some of the money being available for principal forgiveness, negative interest loans, and grants (rather than just capitalization for SRF loans, so they don’t have to be paid back).  USDA’s Rural Utilities Service water and waste disposal system grants gets $70 million and the technical assistance grants for rural water and waste disposal get $19.5 million. Again, the end game for the FY 2011 appropriations process remains very fluid.  AGC will continue to monitor the deliberations and report on any progress.  For more information, contact Sean O’Neill at oneills@agc.org.