WASHINGTON — President Obama has signed into law a short-term extension of federal government spending, including funds for bond-related programs, through March 4. The continuing resolution will prevent a government shutdown and continue programs until after Republicans assume control of the House and begin wielding more power in the Senate.
The measure provides fiscal 2011 appropriations at basically the same funding levels as Congress provided in fiscal 2010, but with an additional $1.16 billion.
A previously enacted CR had been slated to expire Tuesday, when the Senate approved the most recent one by a vote of 79-16, sending it to the House, which passed it by a 193-165 vote. The president signed it into law Wednesday morning.
The resolution extends by a few more months the operation of existing surface transportation programs that states rely on for money. It also extends the ability of state transportation departments to receive reimbursements from the federal highway trust fund to pay for highway construction during the beginning of peak construction season. It gives Republicans the opportunity to take control of the federal budget early in the year instead of having to wait until the appropriations process for fiscal 2012, which begins Oct. 1.
Senate Democrats had been pushing for a $1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that would have funded all major government departments through the end of the fiscal year. But that measure included earmarks, which have become a political target, and GOP opposition in the Senate led to a standoff just days before federal programs would have been forced to shut down due to a lack of funding.
“Our Republican colleagues will allow the [executive branch] to determine how to spend its funds for another two months rather than letting the Congress decide. And, in two months, we will find ourselves having to pass another 2,000-page bill that will cost more than $1 trillion or once again abdicate our authority” to determine funding allocations, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said after the Senate decided to go with a CR instead of an omnibus bill.
