Just a day before the September 30 deadline, President Obama signed into the law the short-term continuing resolution (CR) that the Senate and the House both passed on September 28. Despite long negotiations and disagreements on several key issues, the CR passed with a vote of 72 to 26 in the Senate and 342 to 85 in the House. The CR made a small (.496 percent) across-the-board cut to FY 2016 spending levels with a few exceptions, and it will fund the government through December 9, 2016.
Congress is scheduled to return after the election in mid-November. Because the CR expires in December, they will have to resume negotiations for FY 2017 funding during the lame duck session. Leadership in both the House and the Senate have indicated that they prefer to pass either individual spending bills or “minibuses” (a way of breaking up the 12 individual spending bills into a few small packages), rather than one larger omnibus bill.
Either way, we need to continue talking with our members of Congress to ensure they know how vital it is to increase funding for the Independent Living program. Please refer to our previous alert for NCIL’s talking points as well as a list of the members of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In the meantime, we will continue to keep you updated as negotiations start up again.
Note: NCIL’s October 4 Appropriations Alert incorrectly stated that the CR was set at FY 2016 levels.
