sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
Same budget for 2008-2009 as 2007-2008 fiscal year.....
Hat tip Fla Medic -
Managers brace for ’09 budget delays
By GREGG CARLSTROM
August 26, 2008
Most experts expect the government will run on continuing resolutions for the early part of the coming fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. So managers are already bracing for the impact of no increase in budgets.
At the Homeland Security Department, it likely means delays in moving to a new headquarters; at the Health and Human Services Department, interruptions in plans to beef up pandemic flu preparedness; and at the Census Bureau, more headaches in readying for the 2010 population count.
Congressional leaders admit they’ve fallen behind on this year’s appropriations bills: More than half of the House’s spending bills are still lodged in their subcommittees. And legislators plan to adjourn for the year in late September, just weeks after returning from their summer recess.
That means growing talk of a continuing resolution on Capitol Hill — and growing worry around Washington.
And there’s particular concern at agencies that were promised big budget increases in 2009 to hire key staffers and modernize operations.
One of the hardest-hit agencies would be the Census Bureau. President Bush requested $2.7 billion for the agency in 2009, up sharply from the current-year figure of $1 billion.
Steve Murdock, director of the Census Bureau, said a continuing resolution for even part of 2009 is a “serious concern.”
“[It] can present serious difficulties for the decennial census program,” he said. “Our cyclical budget needs to serially increase in the years leading up to the decennial censuses … and difficulties most often come up in years ending in nine and zero.”
A continuing resolution would prevent the opening of many of the planned 150 field offices for canvass operations. It would also delay development and testing of the software that will manage the census. And it could narrow the agency’s window for hiring 13,000 temporary census employees.
“A [continuing resolution] that freezes our budget … would make it very difficult for the Census Bureau,” Murdock acknowledged.
There also will be an impact — though less severe — at the Border Patrol, which is hiring aggressively. The agency added more than 1,500 new agents this year. The agency is confident it can meet most of its goal of hiring 2,200 new agents next year.
“We’re under a presidential mandate to get those agents hired,” said Jaime Castillo, a spokesman for the Border Patrol. “And we’re confident we can get it done. In 2007, we operated under a [continuing resolution] for a while, and we still managed to hire at a high rate.”
At Health and Human Services, a continuing resolution would interrupt delivery of more than $600 million for pandemic flu preparedness and another $1 billion in bioterrorism preparedness.
A Government Accountability Office report released last month found states had “major gaps” in their preparedness programs, and warned that the upcoming transition could make it harder for HHS to oversee those programs. The department had hoped to distribute most of that money to state and local governments before the new administration takes office in January.
Depending on how long it lasts, a continuing resolution could also mean delays for construction of the consolidated DHS headquarters at the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus in Southeast Washington. The General Services Administration is scheduled to start building the Coast Guard headquarters — the first phase of the project — in 2009.
But Mike McGill, the spokesman for the National Capital Region at GSA, said construction isn’t scheduled to start until midway through the calendar year.
“So if we have a continuing resolution through the inauguration, and then some sort of omnibus appropriations passed in a reasonable fashion thereafter, we won’t have any problems with construction,” McGill said.
Stan Collender, a budget expert with Qorvis Communications, predicts the spending bills likely will be approved in February, soon after the inauguration. That would keep GSA’s construction on track.
Still, officials at DHS say they’re preparing for a continuing resolution, which could delay not just St. Elizabeths but also the expansion of programs like SBInet, the “virtual fence” that’s being deployed along the southern border; and Secure Flight, which checks flight manifests against government no-fly lists.
The department is working with GSA and the Office of Management and Budget to draft an “anomaly” request to Congress, which would ask legislators to provide extra funding for St. Elizabeths in a continuing resolution.
“We’re planning for it. We’re holding regular staff meetings and going through and identifying our ‘must-spend’ dollars, and what can wait,” said a department official. “And it’s not like we’re going to push a button on Oct. 1. These projects don’t start immediately.”
A continuing resolution could interrupt a planned surge in hiring at the State Department, which hopes to hire more than 1,000 new employees next year, half of whom would be Foreign Service officers.
A department spokesperson declined to comment on what it called a “hypothetical” situation that the budget might not be passed in time and claimed that State was not making plans for a continuing resolution.
Some departments may not be affected: The full House approved a spending bill for military construction and the Veterans Affairs Department before recessing earlier this month, raising the possibility that a bill could pass the Senate before Oct. 1. Budget watchers say the Defense and Homeland Security spending bills may also pass before the new fiscal year.
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3692118
Hat tip Fla Medic -
Managers brace for ’09 budget delays
By GREGG CARLSTROM
August 26, 2008
Most experts expect the government will run on continuing resolutions for the early part of the coming fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. So managers are already bracing for the impact of no increase in budgets.
At the Homeland Security Department, it likely means delays in moving to a new headquarters; at the Health and Human Services Department, interruptions in plans to beef up pandemic flu preparedness; and at the Census Bureau, more headaches in readying for the 2010 population count.
Congressional leaders admit they’ve fallen behind on this year’s appropriations bills: More than half of the House’s spending bills are still lodged in their subcommittees. And legislators plan to adjourn for the year in late September, just weeks after returning from their summer recess.
That means growing talk of a continuing resolution on Capitol Hill — and growing worry around Washington.
And there’s particular concern at agencies that were promised big budget increases in 2009 to hire key staffers and modernize operations.
One of the hardest-hit agencies would be the Census Bureau. President Bush requested $2.7 billion for the agency in 2009, up sharply from the current-year figure of $1 billion.
Steve Murdock, director of the Census Bureau, said a continuing resolution for even part of 2009 is a “serious concern.”
“[It] can present serious difficulties for the decennial census program,” he said. “Our cyclical budget needs to serially increase in the years leading up to the decennial censuses … and difficulties most often come up in years ending in nine and zero.”
A continuing resolution would prevent the opening of many of the planned 150 field offices for canvass operations. It would also delay development and testing of the software that will manage the census. And it could narrow the agency’s window for hiring 13,000 temporary census employees.
“A [continuing resolution] that freezes our budget … would make it very difficult for the Census Bureau,” Murdock acknowledged.
There also will be an impact — though less severe — at the Border Patrol, which is hiring aggressively. The agency added more than 1,500 new agents this year. The agency is confident it can meet most of its goal of hiring 2,200 new agents next year.
“We’re under a presidential mandate to get those agents hired,” said Jaime Castillo, a spokesman for the Border Patrol. “And we’re confident we can get it done. In 2007, we operated under a [continuing resolution] for a while, and we still managed to hire at a high rate.”
At Health and Human Services, a continuing resolution would interrupt delivery of more than $600 million for pandemic flu preparedness and another $1 billion in bioterrorism preparedness.
A Government Accountability Office report released last month found states had “major gaps” in their preparedness programs, and warned that the upcoming transition could make it harder for HHS to oversee those programs. The department had hoped to distribute most of that money to state and local governments before the new administration takes office in January.
Depending on how long it lasts, a continuing resolution could also mean delays for construction of the consolidated DHS headquarters at the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus in Southeast Washington. The General Services Administration is scheduled to start building the Coast Guard headquarters — the first phase of the project — in 2009.
But Mike McGill, the spokesman for the National Capital Region at GSA, said construction isn’t scheduled to start until midway through the calendar year.
“So if we have a continuing resolution through the inauguration, and then some sort of omnibus appropriations passed in a reasonable fashion thereafter, we won’t have any problems with construction,” McGill said.
Stan Collender, a budget expert with Qorvis Communications, predicts the spending bills likely will be approved in February, soon after the inauguration. That would keep GSA’s construction on track.
Still, officials at DHS say they’re preparing for a continuing resolution, which could delay not just St. Elizabeths but also the expansion of programs like SBInet, the “virtual fence” that’s being deployed along the southern border; and Secure Flight, which checks flight manifests against government no-fly lists.
The department is working with GSA and the Office of Management and Budget to draft an “anomaly” request to Congress, which would ask legislators to provide extra funding for St. Elizabeths in a continuing resolution.
“We’re planning for it. We’re holding regular staff meetings and going through and identifying our ‘must-spend’ dollars, and what can wait,” said a department official. “And it’s not like we’re going to push a button on Oct. 1. These projects don’t start immediately.”
A continuing resolution could interrupt a planned surge in hiring at the State Department, which hopes to hire more than 1,000 new employees next year, half of whom would be Foreign Service officers.
A department spokesperson declined to comment on what it called a “hypothetical” situation that the budget might not be passed in time and claimed that State was not making plans for a continuing resolution.
Some departments may not be affected: The full House approved a spending bill for military construction and the Veterans Affairs Department before recessing earlier this month, raising the possibility that a bill could pass the Senate before Oct. 1. Budget watchers say the Defense and Homeland Security spending bills may also pass before the new fiscal year.
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3692118
