Summary
On September 11, 2012, the House unveiled a Continuing Resolution (CR) for fiscal year (FY) 2013 that would keep the federal government running until March 27, 2013. Discretionary spending levels in the CR are set at an annualized level of $1.047 trillion, the FY 2013 amount included in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25). Since this amount is about $8 billion more than FY 2012 appropriations based on recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the CR provides a 0.612% across-the-board increase for most programs and specifies additional funding for some areas such as cybersecurity, disaster assistance, presidential inauguration activities, refugee assistance, and the Commodity Assistance Program (CAP). In addition, the CR contains a few policy provisions and would extend funding for several programs that are set to expire on September 30, 2012. The full House approved the bill on September 13, 2012. The Senate will consider the measure next week.