Today, President Obama signed a bill (passed by the House and Senate yesterday) extending the FY2012 Continuing Resolution until December 16. The CR extension is included in a "minbus" appropriations bill that funds five agencies in three appropriations bills: Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, and Transportation/HUD.
This is the third FY2012 CR. The first funded agencies until October 4 and the second CR was scheduled to run out today. The CR extension signed today ensures that the government will keep running while Congress works to complete action on the remaining nine appropriations bills.
Agencies funded by these nine bills (including DoD and Military Construction /VA) will continue operations under the new CR or until funded in a signed appropriations bills. But, the prospects for separate or combinations of bills for these appropriations appear to be fading. The Senate seemed ready to introduce a second “minibus,” appropriations bill. However, it now appears that move has been scraped making it far more likely that these bills will be wrapped up in one final bill.
