Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Reports Out Social Security Funding Bill

The Labor-HHS Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has reported out the appropriations bill that covers Social Security. The Subcommittee bill includes $12,378,863 in operating funds for Social Security. This is the amount recommended by the White House. This is also the amount reported out of the corresponding subcommittee in the House of Representatives.

These bills must now go to the full committees and then to the floor in the House and Senate. Since there will be differences between the two bills there must be a conference committee. There is no chance this will be completed before October 1, 2010, the beginning of the fiscal year. Republicans are likely to try to slow things down, especially if they win a lot of races in the November elections. This whole process could easily extend into next Spring. Indeed, if Republicans win control of one House of Congress it may be impossible to pass a Labor-HHS appropriations bill for the 2011 fiscal year, meaning that Social Security will be stuck with a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the agency at the 2010 rate. That would be terrible for Social Security, probably necessitating a hiring freeze for most of the agency for most of the year.