Stalemate on Continuing Resolutions in Congress

Even while the 2012 budget has been introduced and debated, issues associated with the 2011 budget still rage. Recall that money cannot be actually spent - drawn from the treasury, despite the fact that it has been budgetted, unless it is appropriated. As we know in 2302, Appropriations Committees exist in the House and Senate to oversee the process. But the process also allows for opponents of spending an additional chance to alter - after the fact - the budget. Impasses over spending are common, so appropriations bills are often not passed by the time the fiscal year starts. Continuing resolutions are then required to fund governmental operations. But these need to be voted on repeatedy, meaning opponents of pending always have a chance to block spending they are opposed to.

Republicans want to trim back spending on last year's budget, but have differed over how much. The Tea Party members want far more cuts than their leadership originally wanted, but appear to have won the day. Republicans now want to slice $100 billion from the 2011 budget, but they only control the House, not the Senate.  Senate Democrats are unlikely to vote for the budget cuts the House Republicans support. If this dispute is not resolved, and a continuing resolution is not passed when the current one expires - March 4 -- funding for government ceases and it all shuts down.

Related stories:

- Boehner says spending must be cut, but Senate Democrats won’t budge.
- Hill braces for shutdown showdown.
- House's cuts will test Senate.

From CQ Roll Call regarding the current state of the bill: THE HOUSE: Convened at 9 and appears on course for final passage of the $1 trillion, seven-month spending package sometime tonight. Talk of a Saturday session has been fading, even though all sides agreed late last night to allow up to 23 more hours of debate on as many as 129 more amendments.

Three amendments are getting the lion’s share of attention. One would cut all federal family planning aid. Another would prohibit any spending to implement last year’s health care overhaul. The last would impose an additional $20 billion in cuts from current levels (on top of the $61 billion in the legislation), which the conservative Republican Study Committee says would accomplish its goal of bringing non-security spending down to 2008 levels.