House Passes Funding Bill

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2013 funding measure that will provide for government spending through Sept. 30, 2013.  The bill combined the Defense and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bills with a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of the appropriations bills. The bill passed by a vote of 267-151; 14 Republicans and 137 Democrats opposed the bill. The House bill would effectively cap 2013 spending at $982 billion – an approximate cut of $59 billion from fiscal year 2012.  The cut is reflective of the sequester cuts that went into effect on March 1 as ordered by the Office of Management and Budget.   However, the CR does not detail the effects of the sequestration on individual federal programs. Unfortunately, the CR did not fully address issues of concern to AGC, which were expressed in our Feb. 28 letter to Congress.   Specifically, the bill fails to provide MAP-21 funding levels for highway and transit investment.  It is estimated that the House CR funding level is $555 million below the authorized levels in MAP-21 for highways and $117 million for transit.  In addition, the bill continues the prohibition on new starts for federal construction projects with an exception for projects that fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bills. The Senate must now pass or amend the bill by March 27 – when the current continuing resolution expires – in order to avoid a government shutdown.  It is expected that the Senate will make some tweaks to the House-passed bill and may even go as far as to add a couple of its own full appropriations bills. AGC will continue to press the Senate to restore transportation funding to MAP-21 levels and lift the prohibition on new and necessary federal construction projects.    AGC members are urged to visit AGC’s Legislative Action Center for more information and to contact their members of Congress. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.