Nov 19, 2010

Abandon Your Omnibus Fantasies

From the National Journal:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has effectively killed any hopes of passing an omnibus appropriations bill in the lame duck, announcing Thursday that he is opposed to such a measure. Congress will be forced to keep the government operating through a continuing resolution. ...

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said Wednesday that he expected a decision Thursday on whether Democrats would try to pass a complete omnibus for the rest of the fiscal year, or what is likely to be a shorter-term continuing resolution that freezes federal funding at fiscal 2010 levels. But McConnell's announcement signals a lack of GOP support for that course in the Senate, meaning Democrats will likely have to settle on a continuing resolution. Language for such a bill is being drafted by House and Senate appropriators, aides have said.
A lengthy continuing resolution is bad for Social Security because the agency faces rising workloads. I am very afraid that we are looking at continuing resolutions for the rest of this fiscal year and maybe the next as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In his written testimony at the hearing on Monday, the COSS stated that SSA "may" have a furlough if we do not get the President's FY 2011 budget. Time will tell if this is a reality or political grandstanding...

John Herling said...

A furlough wouldn't be unprecedented.