Senate sends Continuing Resolution to House

This morning the Senate changed unrelated House Bill 336 to become the 2013 continuing resolution bill.  This will continue funding at 95% of 2012 funding until July 31^st, or until a budget is signed into law.  This bill mirrors most other continuing resolutions in the past, with the exception of Medicaid.  The Medicaid shortfall and the large impact it has had on the budget is causing additional money to be set aside for that program, which was not done in previous budget years.  The continuing resolution legislation can be found here.

The Senate’s vote was 37-12 in favor of the resolution and was delivered to the House by special messenger so they can vote on it today during their session.  Many of the democratic leaders debated and questioned the specifics outlined in the resolution, mainly education.  The resolution allows the budget director to enact the changes that are the same in both Senate and House, any items that in dispute are not to be acted upon, and existing items are to be funded at 95% until a budget is agreed upon.

The reason given for the extension of budget discussions is due to the hold-up on tax reform.  There are differing opinions between the chambers on what changes need to be made to the existing tax code.  The budget details cannot be finalized until the amount of revenue available to spend on operating expenses is set with the tax code.

Below are a list of budget bills and continuing resolutions since 2001.