Appropriations Update: October 1, 2009

As fiscal year 2010 begins today, Congress continues work on the appropriations bills that fund government activities.

• The President signed into law last night the Legislative Branch appropriations bill that includes the Continuing Resolution to keep the government operating until the end of October. It is the first of the 12 FY2010 appropriations bills to be enacted.
• The House passed the conference report on the Energy-Water appropriations bill (H.R. 3183) today; Senate action is expected next week.
• The Senate may pass the Department of Defense appropriations bill (H.R. 3326) as early as today, after which conferees need to be named to reconcile the Senate- and House-passed versions.
• According to Congress Daily (subscription required), the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, H.R. 2847 (which includes NASA and NOAA), may be the next appropriations bill to reach the Senate floor. As with the DOD bill, once the Senate passes the bill, it will have to be conferenced with the House.

The other eight bills are not particularly related to the space program, so are not tracked here. For completeness, however, here is a scorecard as of mid-afternoon October 1:

• Agriculture: conferees completed action yesterday
• Homeland Security: in conference
• Transportation/HUD and Interior/Environment: waiting for the House to appoint conferees (the Senate has appointed them)
• Financial Services, Labor/HHS/Education, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, and State Department/Foreign Operations: awaiting floor action in the Senate (along with CJS).

The Thomas website of the Library of Congress has a more complete list of actions on appropriations bills. For an explanation of the steps Congress takes to pass legislation, read our “What’s a Markup?” Fact Sheet.