Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/2/2015
Congress this week passed a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2015 enacted levels and avoids a government shutdown. The CR gives Congress an additional 10 weeks to work toward a budget solution, but with uncertainty in the House following Speaker John Boehner’s recent resignation announcement, there remains no guarantee lawmakers will make any additional progress come December. Appropriations leaders, though, hope to avoid the need for any additional CRs or shutdown threats. “Once again, Congress has had to act on a short-term funding bill to keep the lights on in government,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement. “This yearly, destabilizing practice is bad for the U.S. economy, bad for the reliability of important government programs – including our national defense – and wastes federal money by arbitrarily postponing actions that make better use of taxpayer dollars. However, this legislation is absolutely necessary, as the alternative – a government shutdown – is reckless and irresponsible.”
Under the CR, Department of Energy fossil energy programs are funded at a rate equivalent to fiscal 2015 enacted levels for a 10-week period. In fiscal 2015, Fossil Energy Research and Development programs were funded at $560.6 million. Within that total, carbon capture programs were funded at $88 million and carbon storage at $100 million. The National Energy Technology Laboratory’s coal research and development programs were funded at $50 million.
The Environmental Protection Agency would also be funded at a rate equivalent to fiscal year 2015 enacted levels for a 10-week period. In FY15, the agency’s Science and Technology section’s Clean Air and Climate programs were funded at $116.5 million. Within that total $8 million was allocated for climate protection programs. Agency air, climate, and energy research were funded at $92 million. The agency’s Environmental Programs and Management section’s Clean Air and Climate programs were funded at $273.1 million, with $95.4 million allocated for climate protection programs.
