Congress Nears Completion of Year-End Spending Bill - December 13, 2011

In addition to working on the SGR fix and other year-end business, Congress has nearly finished its work on an omnibus spending bill (H.R. 2055) that combines the nine outstanding appropriations bills for fiscal year 2012. This omnibus legislation will fund most of the federal government through the remainder of the fiscal year and must be finalized prior to Dec. 16, when the current continuing resolution (CR) expires. Appropriators from the House and Senate worked through the weekend on a bipartisan compromise set to be finalized in the next few days and sent to President Barack Obama by the end of this week. This compromise would outline $1 trillion in federal agency spending through Sept. 30, 2012. The process of reaching the final agreement on the omnibus was helped by the fact that the spending level for the year was set by the Budget Control Act of 2011, passed in August. Additionally, it seems Congress has had more incentive to compromise, as the House will need democratic votes to pass any appropriations bill.

At this time, funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is included in this omnibus. Calls for the labor-HHS-education provisions to be separated from the omnibus and instead passed through a full-year CR have been abandoned. NAPH will continue to monitor the omnibus spending legislation as it makes its way through Congress and on to the president for final passage.