Appropriations Update: More of the Same

In this next installment of our FY 2012 appropriations update, we will detail the actions that the House has taken since our last update on May 24. Despite the recess last week, the House has managed to stay active with the appropriations process.

There are a lot of moving parts in the House's action on the 2012 budget. So far, two appropriations bills have passed the full House: the Military Construction-VA bill and the Homeland Security bill. The former bill was relatively non-controversial, but the Homeland Security bill came under attack by Democrats for cuts to first responder grants.

Other bills are waiting for action by the full House. The controversial Agriculture bill was approved by the Appropriations Committee before the recess. This bill has been a lightning rod for Democrats, who believe the bill provides inadequate funding for a number of food programs, especially the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Also, just yesterday, the full Committee approved the Defense bill, including an additional $119 billion for war spending, and the Energy and Water bill just passed today.

Additional action will come tomorrow when the Financial Services bill is marked up in its subcommittee.

The table below sums up all the moving parts of the House process, along with the amount of cuts contained in each bill.

^{Note: All numbers in the table only represent discretionary spending}

^{*These numbers account for both DOD base budget and war spending. The 2012 DOD base budget is $17 billion higher than 2011, while war spending is $39 billion lower.}

As for the Senate, well, we're still waiting for that budget resolution.