There has been some movement in the House of Representatives pertaining to the issue of future funding for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (DoD).

The budget debate continues to slog on. We still could see an eventual governmental shut down if the members of congress are still unable to either pass a budget for 2011 or a Continuing Resolution (CR) which would extend the budget for a brief period of time. The concept of a CR is to provide funding until a full budget is passed.

The current status is that the House is preparing another CR that will include full funding for the DoD bill through the end of FY11.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) April 4 introduced a 7th continuing resolution (CR) to prevent a government shutdown for an additional week (through April 15) while cutting a total of $12 billion in discretionary spending. The measure (H.R. 1363) also includes funding for the Department of Defense for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

According got a summary released by Chairman Rogers, the CR cuts $2.5 billion from Labor, Health and Human Services programs, “many of which were also included in the President’s budget requests, in the Senate’s CR proposal, or in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) CR proposal.” These cuts include $156 million from Centers for Disease Control Immunization and Respiratory Disease funding, $185 million in hospital preparedness grants, $119 million in “Teaching American History” program funding, $390 million from the LIHEAP contingency fund, and $300 million in excess information technology funding at the Social Security Administration. There are no provisions related to NIH.

The CR also includes a policy rider to prevent both federal and local funds from being used to provide abortions in the District of Columbia.

Press Release and summary:

Bill text: http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/Floor_Text/112-HR1363_xml.pdf

We are not out of the woods yet, so if you have not contacted your member of congress it would still help the cause.

These CRs and a full budget for 2011 will not mean that we are out of the woods as the budget fight over 2012 promises to be even more aggressive and contentious.

Joel T. Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.

Addendum- At about 1:15 this afternoon President Obama announced that he will not sign any continuing resolution.