Though CRA — along with lots of other members of the science community (and a whole lot of other constituencies) — pressed for Congress to complete its work on the FY 07 appropriations before adjourning, it appears that the outgoing congressional leadership has decided to punt the process to the new Democratic congress. Congress is set to vote today on a new “Continuing Resolution” that will fund the operations of government through February 15th at FY 2006 levels, with only one exception for veteran’s health care (which will get a $3 billion bump in the CR). CRA joined with a number of scientific groups in using our advocacy networks to try and pressure Congress to either finish the appropriations bills — which contain hard-won increases for science as part of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative — or, if necessary, pass a continuing resolution that contains the agreed-to increases as “exceptions” to the CR. CRA activated its CRAN network to call members of Congress in their district offices and ask them to pressure their leadership to pass the approps bills or pass a CR that included the ACI increases. However, the science community wasn’t alone in asking for “exceptions” for its favored programs. The pressure on Congress from a large number of “special interest” groups fighting for exceptions was strong enough that it appears the leadership just decided that it was easier just to sharply limit what gets excluded from the CR — limiting it only to the VA program increase.
There is some cost to the community as a result of this. The agencies who who benefit from ACI-related increases won’t likely receive the increased funding they would have gotten for the months that pass while they operate under the CR, effectively delaying the start of the ACI ramp-up until after Congress finally gets the appropriations done. And of course, until Congress gets the appropriations bills figured out, agencies are sharply constrained in the number of new programs they can start and, in some cases, the new personnel they can hire.
But it does appear that Congress is still committed to the ACI goals and that the increases will be in the bills once they’re eventually passed. There is a “worst case” scenario that the appropriators will feel overwhelmed with the prospect of having to complete two fiscal years worth of appropriations in an 8 month period and just “CR” the entire FY 07 — skip it, and move right to FY 08. It doesn’t appear that’s very likely, but we’ll continue to keep an eye on it (and continue to advocate against it, of course.) Whether they just bundle the outstanding appropriations bills as an omnibus or try to pass them individually under “regular order,” the conventional wisdom is that the new Democratic congress will act quickly in February to get it done and begin work on the FY 08 appropriations process.