HOUSE RULES PAVES WAY FOR CONSIDERATION OF E&W FUNDING BILL

The House Rules Committee established guidelines for the consideration of three appropriations bills yesterday, setting up the full House to take up the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Act as early as next week. The bill will be considered under an open rule, eliminating limits on the number of amendments that could be offered to the bill, which provides funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The chamber also plans to take up the FY2013 Military Construction and Veterans’ Affairs and Homeland Security funding bills over the next two weeks (it will start with Military Construction/VA this week), but despite the chamber’s quick pace, there’s little chance of the House and Senate negotiating compromise legislation to resolve the FY2013 funding picture before the November elections. That means that a Continuing Resolution is almost certain to fund NNSA, EM and the rest of the government starting Oct. 1.