As you may have heard, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged last week that he did not have the votes to pass his 2,000-page, pork-laden omnibus. Given that the spending bill would have amounted to $1.25 trillion, thank goodness there were Senators willing to stand up and fight! This was a huge victory for fiscal conservatives.
Instead of the omnibus, Reid proceeded with a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March 4. Nothing huge to report, but the CR does include some additional changes to allow normal operations for certain programs that would otherwise expire. Overall, the 36-page bill includes a $1.16 billion increase over FY 2010 levels.
Obviously not great since we would like to see spending levels reduced, not merely maintained, but far better than the original omnibus package. At least, now, incoming conservative freshmen will have the opportunity to propose significant spending reductions in March.
The Senate passed the short-term CR by a vote of 79-16. The House is expected to do so later today or tomorrow.