With the new federal fiscal year now more than a month old, the FY 2004 appropriations process continues to crawl towards completion. Last week the Congress finished the conference on the $87.5 billion Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act. As soon as it is ratified by the Senate, it will be sent to the President for signature. The FY 2004 Interior Appropriations Act is also expected to receive final Congressional approval this week. Once this bill is signed into law it will join the Defense, Homeland Security and Legislative Branch Appropriations bills as the only FY 2004 appropriations acts to be completed.

Other appropriations bills – such as VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies which funds NSF and NASA; Commerce-Justice-State, which funds NOAA; and Agriculture – await Senate floor action before they can formally go to conference with the House. Five other bills are in conference though they have been at an impasse for several weeks. These bills include the Energy and Water Appropriations Act which funds the Office of Science at the Energy Department and the Labor-HHS-Education Act which funds the NIH and the Education Department.

As a result, with only four of the thirteen bills completed, the Congress has enacted a second continuing resolution to keep these and other agencies funded at the FY 2003 level until this Friday, November 7. It is unlikely the Congress can finish all the remaining bills by the end of this week. Therefore, a third continuing resolution is being prepared which is expected to fund the government through November 21– the Friday prior to Thanksgiving.

- Joel M. Widder, Lewis Burke Associates