Before leaving Washington for the next seven weeks to campaign in their home states before the Nov. 6th election, House and Senate members passed FY2013 Continuing Resolution H.J. Res. 117, which continues funding for the federal government at levels slightly higher than those for FY2012 until March 27, 2013.
During the Senate’s consideration of the bill, Senator Daniel Inouye (D – Hawaii) noted that the bill was “lean and stripped down” despite including $19 billion more in appropriations than Rep. Paul Ryan’s Pathway to Prosperity budget, passed in the House earlier this year.
The Continuing Resolution grants $1.047 trillion for discretionary spending for the next six months, but it does not affect automatic cuts from sequestration, which is set to go into effect in January and could result in major cuts to R&D across the board, and specifically to energy innovation both at DOE and DOD.