LAWMAKERS GEARING UP FOR SHORT-TERM CONTINUING RESOLUTION

Todd Jacobson
GHG Monitor
8/30/13

When Congressional lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 9 after the August recess, they’ll have to quickly begin work on a Continuing Resolution to fund the Department of Energy and other government agencies at the start of Fiscal Year 2014. But while most Congressional aides are gearing up for a short-term CR that would fund the government for two or three months and temporarily put off several key political battles, it’s unclear exactly what might be contained in the stopgap funding legislation. “It’s most likely going to be a shorter CR,” one Congressional aide told GHG Monitor, “and they’re going to try to keep it as clean as possible.”

House speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has hinted as much this summer, suggesting that he favored a short-term CR that would not include extras like the “Defund Obamacare” legislation, as some conservatives have called for. Such a short-term measure would likely extend through Thanksgiving or Christmas. The House of Representatives has passed its version of the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which provided $430 million for the Department’s Fossil Energy R&D program, a $10 million increase above the White House request. The full Senate hasn’t acted on its version of the bill, but the Senate Appropriations Committee matched the Administration’s $420.6 million request for the Fossil Energy R&D program.