Republicans Introduce Second Funding Stopgap

The House Appropriations Committee has introduced a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government until April 8 so that House and Senate lawmakers can continue to negotiate a long-term plan to keep government running through the end of the fiscal year. The stopgap measure includes $6 billion in spending cuts that were included in the CR that the House passed last month.

The temporary plan would cut $2 million from minority business development funds, $91 million from juvenile justice programs, $3 million from community development financial institutions and $17.5 million from brownfields redevelopment.

“Beyond this three-week measure, House Republicans will continue to work on a long-term CR to fund the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year that includes significant and serious spending cuts,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) in a statement. “The new Republican majority was elected to change the way that Washington works and stop spending money that we don’t have.”

During a press conference Friday afternoon, President Obama addressed the budget stalemate on Capitol Hill. Referring to the competing resolutions that were voted down in the Senate earlier this week, he said that both sides are going to have to compromise on cuts “somewhere between what the Republicans were seeking that’s now been rejected and what the Democrats had agreed to that has also been rejected.”

Obama also said that he instructs his team each day on cuts he deems acceptable or not, such as Pell Grants and the elimination of 200,000 Head Start slots that also would cut 55,000 teaching positions.

“I’ve communicated directly to Speaker [John] Boehner as well as to Republican Leader McConnell that we want to work with them to get to a sustainable discretionary budget. And we think it’s important for us to stop funding programs that don’t work,” the president said. “But we’re going to make sure that we hold the line when it comes to some critical programs that are either going to help us outeducate, outinnovate, or outbuild other countries.”

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