Congress Returns from Brief Recess, Super Committee Continues to Deliberate Spending Cuts - October 4, 2011

Coming back from a brief recess, the House of Representatives has until Tuesday, Oct. 4, to vote on a continuing resolution (CR), which was passed by the Senate last week, to fund the government until Nov. 18. Congressional appropriators still have to come to an agreement on legislation funding federal programs for the rest of fiscal year (FY) 2012, which began on Saturday, Oct. 1. The House Committee on Appropriations released its draft FY 2012 funding bill for labor, health and human services last week. The draft bill included more than $70 billion in discretionary spending for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – $200 million less than FY 2011 and $2.8 million less than what President Barack Obama proposed in his budget. NAPH will continue to monitor the FY 2012 appropriations as Congress works to comply with the provisions in the deficit reduction legislation – the Budget Control Act – passed in August, which cut non-emergency discretionary spending.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (or “super committee”) met last week behind closed doors, continuing to deliberate how to achieve the savings it was directed to identify in the Budget Control Act. NAPH also continues to work on outreach to committee members and their staff and encourages NAPH members to do the same. The “super committee” must vote on any recommended budget savings by Nov. 23, but recommendations need to be laid out by the beginning of November to allow the Congressional Budget Office enough time to score potential savings.