Congress has made very little progress toward being able to finally adjourn for the year, leaving most of their appropriations work, a set of popular tax breaks, and funding problems in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program still unaddressed. With time running out, Congress will probably pass another extension of a budget-cutting continuing resolution, once again neglecting its duty to enact the annual spending bills. In order to keep the government running, Congress did recently pass an extension of the severe continuing resolution (H.J. Res. 100) it originally enacted before recessing to campaign in October. When Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess, it will probably pass another extension of the same CR, which will likely last until early January, though some conservatives have made a push to have the next extension cover all of FY 2007. Earlier this year, appropriators had promised to avoid a long-term CR, but a handful of conservative Senators are making a concerted effort to block the passage of “minibus” or “omnibus” appropriations bills that would attract spending earmarks. So obstructed, the lame-duck Senate only cleared one of 10 remaining appropriations bills - the Military Construction-Veterans Administration bill (H.R. 5385). CQ Daily recently reported that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) now does not plan to try to pass more appropriations bills this year, and will likely encourage a long-term extension of the CR that will last through January. This strategy, however, should only serve to delay the passage of an omnibus bill, since Congress will still probably use an omnibus vehicle to clear the 10 remaining appropriations bills. The result of delaying a vote on an omnibus bill may be to make the incoming,110th Congress seem responsible for passing multiple earmarks and making unpopular spending choices in 2007. Even if an omnibus bill is passed in December, spending will be constrained by a tight cap on discretionary spending that the Defense and Homeland Security appropriations bills have made even tighter. Human needs programs may suffer cuts as a result. Part of the reason conservatives in the Senate are advocating a long-term CR is because of the way the resolution is worded. This CR is structured in a way that cuts funding for all programs it covers. It funds all discretionary programs at the lowest of either the FY 2006 level, or the level passed by the House or Senate - making the highest possible funding the FY 2006 appropriations. The CR will flat fund many government programs, which, after accounting for population growth and inflation, will amount to significant cuts. Other programs will be cut even deeper. No program under the CR will escape some kind of cut. The longer this CR is extended, the deeper the funding cuts will be. It will also keep in place budgetary decisions that may no longer be appropriate or desired. This is particularly true for the Labor/HHS bill, which funds many programs that achieve important social policy goals. Neither the House nor the Senate passed a Labor/HHS bill, so the CR will continue to fund programs at the same level as last year’s bill. Unfortunately, last year's Labor/HHS bill also cut funding for many vital programs below the level to maintain services. (For a list of all program cuts in 2005's Labor/HHS bill, see this chart from the Coalition on Human Needs.) Furthermore, the dependence on continuing resolutions may cause problems for agencies that already need to plan for the FY 2008 budget. By early February, all agencies are expected to estimate how much funding will be necessary to maintain current levels of services. If agencies do not know what services they will be providing in the current year, they may have trouble estimating how much funding it will take to maintain these services into the following year. As things stand now, agencies may not have this knowledge until it is too late. SCHIP Funding Still Unresolved Congress has also failed to provide needed funding for the State’s Children Health Insurance Program. If not addressed, a funding shortfall may cause over 500,000 children to loose health insurance. SCHIP is a joint federal/state program that shores up Medicaid coverage for low-income children. Increased health care costs and greater participation have put pressure on SCHIP programs in a number of states. Without more funding, administrators will either have to request additional state funds or begin to scale back services. It should be noted that SCHIP is not funded through the appropriations process. Rather, as a mandatory block-grant program, its funding levels are guaranteed to stay at a fixed level each year, unless Congress takes action. The November election does not seem to have changed this Congress much. They will have three weeks in December to try to turn it around.