Another Continuing Resolution Introduced to Prevent Government Shutdown, Cut $12 billion in Spending

Statement

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers today introduced another temporary funding measure -- known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) -- to prevent a government shutdown for an additional week while cutting a total of $12 billion in discretionary spending. The measure also includes funding for the Department of Defense for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Rogers' statement and a summary of this legislation follows:

"My Committee has worked diligently and fervently to negotiate with the Senate on final agreement for funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year. However, at nearly every turn, these negotiations have been blocked by Senate Majority Leader Reid.

"Leader Reid has attempted to abuse the budget process to conceal additional spending through phony offsets and gimmicks. He has proposed damaging cuts to national defense to pay for lower-priority domestic programs. He has prohibited the involvement of his own Democrat Senators in negotiations. And, he has dictated that all policy provisions and legislative language be cleared through him and him alone -- destroying the ability of negotiators to continue in their work.

"We cannot let the unruly actions of one person cause a government-wide shutdown and unravel the efforts House Republicans have made to significantly reduce spending and rein in our historic deficits. Therefore, I am introducing a short-term continuing resolution today to keep the government open for another week. This bill will cut $12 billion to help chip away at ballooning budgets, and includes responsible funding for our national defense for the rest of the fiscal year.

"This bill is not the preferable way to go forward, and I would greatly prefer to come to a final agreement with the Senate to put this long-overdue budget work behind us. However, we must maintain critical programs and services for the American people and protect our nation's financial future. This legislation give us this option, while exacting a price for Leader Reid's delays and allowing time to finally begin honest negotiations."

The $12 billion in cuts contained in this legislation include funding rescissions, reductions, and program terminations. All of the cuts were also included in H.R.1, and many were included in the President's budget requests or the Senate's alternative to H.R. 1.

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