Spending Measure Decisions Ahead

To date, congressional appropriators have held off moving the spending bills that will be needed to fund federal agencies in the upcoming fiscal year, waiting for instructions carried in the budget resolution. However, appropriators want to begin producing bills soon, since there is relatively little working time left in an election-shortened year. The key bill for federal employees is the Transportation-Treasury measure, which in many recent years carried the actual federal raise for the following January. The appropriations process last year further resulted in a tangle of policies affecting various agencies covered by various spending bills with regard to contracting-out policy. The administration would like to have the restrictions lifted, although once language gets into an appropriations bill it can be hard to get out.