The Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved the president’s request for a 1.4 percent FY2011 pay increase for federal civilian employees as they completed action on nine FY2011 appropriations bills, before leaving on a month-long summer recess.  The civilian pay raise was included in the FY2011 Financial Services appropriations bill.  Other approved bills included Agriculture, Commerce/State/Justice, Energy & Water, Homeland Security, Labor/HHS/Education, Military Construction/VA, State/Foreign Operations, and Transportation/HUD.  The only FY2011 bills the Senate panel has not yet approved are for DoD, Interior & Environment, and the Legislative Branch.  No bill has reached the Senate floor.  The House, on the other hand, has completed subcommittee action on all 12 FY2011 appropriations bills.  But, it has recorded full committee approval on only two appropriations bills—Military Construction/VA and Transportation/HUD—both of which full the House passed on July 28th.  Even with the late flurry on activity in the Senate and a good start in the House, much remains to be done to complete action on all appropriations bills by September 30th.  Many Hill observers are saying too much, given less than a month of work left.  So, the probability of a continuing resolution (CR) for most appropriations on October 1st is very high, as has been the case in most recent years.  Remember last year?   Only the FY2010 Legislative Branch appropriations bill was completed by October 1st along with the first CR.  By October 30, another five appropriations bills and the second CR were enacted.  By December 16th, the Transportation bill and another four more bills (including Homeland Security and Military Construction/VA, were passed.  And finally, on December 19th, the final FY2010 appropriations bill, DoD was passed.  This is not to say that this year will be a repeat of last year’s congressional action chronology.  But, this year has something last year did not—a congressional election!