Appropriations Bills May Not Pass Until December

When the Senate Majority Leader predicts a timeline, you can generally take that to the bank. However, it appears Congress will miss its deadline of having all appropriations bills completed by the end of October.

I always felt they would meet this end-of-October deadline, but for a lot of reasons it now looks like the appropriations process may not finish until mid-December. This week Congress is consumed primarily with health care reform and passing a continuing resolution to fund the government through mid-December.

Most of the appropriations bills that impact Community Action Agencies are very close to 2009 funding levels, with the exception of a slight funding variation in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. With the additional stimulus funding for Community Action programs, it leaves very little to disagreement.

The potential relevance of the appropriations delay to the Community Action network lies in earmarks. A number of agencies will now have individual earmarks that will not be effective by the time the bills are signed into law.

Stay tuned as the prolonged appropriations process unfolds.