News
With funding for fiscal 2007 approved and signed into law Feb. 15, the uncertainty and fears of furloughs are finally behind federal managers.
But the appropriation is little comfort for some managers, who say the 4½-month delay and denial of spending increases for 2007 have already wreaked havoc on their operations.
“It gets harder every year to work this way,” said Greggory Bond, a senior analyst for the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General in Seattle.
Under the stop-gap spending bills agencies had been operating under since October, IGs’ travel was cut to a minimum, delaying investigations. Training was on hold. Some offices did not fill vacancies.
“If we’re not traveling, that means more time for training,” Bond said. “But if we’re not training, that’s a lot of wasted time.”
Other agencies face bigger constraints under the approved funding, including the Defense Department, which lost funding for base closures, and NASA, which may face delays in developing a replacement for the space shuttle.
But to the White House’s chagrin, the law ignores the president’s recommendation to cut or scale back 141 federal programs, which it said would have saved $15 billion.
On an 81-15 vote, the Senate on Feb. 14 approved House Joint Resolution 20, which funds most government operations and programs at fiscal 2006 levels, but adds more than 100 pages of exceptions, including additional funding for agencies that were in danger of furloughing staff and money to cover half of the 2.2 percent pay raise. President Bush signed the bill into law the next day. The measures are identical to those the House passed Jan. 31.
Republicans object
Senate Republicans were not happy about how HJR 20 ended up. Tom Coburn, Okla.; James Inhofe, Okla.; and John McCain, Ariz., took the floor before the vote and denounced the Democratic leadership’s decision to not allow the $464 billion funding bill to be amended in any way. They also faulted the cut of $3.1 billion from the president’s funding request for military base closings and consolidations.
Coburn was especially incensed at what he called the joint resolution’s lack of clarity, dishonesty about costs and inclusion of $17 billion in hidden earmarks. He said he wanted to extend the previous continuing resolution for two weeks beyond its Feb. 15 end date to debate it, but said he was denied.
“It’s a scam, and the American people need to know it’s a scam,” Coburn said. “The way to lower taxes is to get rid of the waste, fraud, abuse and duplication present in government. This bill does none of that.”
McCain said Democrats plan to include Base Realignment and Closure Commission funding in a $93.4 billion military supplemental the White House is expected to submit in March. But Coburn said that will be too late to reap the cost savings BRAC was intended to provide.
McCain also criticized the bill’s restrictions on amendments and BRAC cuts: “This callous decision directly harms communities, as well as the military units placed in limbo by the sudden denial of funds.”
McCain also questioned how rolling BRAC funding into the supplemental — which is meant to pay for unexpected costs such as those arising from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — will affect soldiers.
“What critical war-fighting requirement will be cut in the supplemental to pay for BRAC costs?” McCain said. “What kind of a solution is that? I haven’t heard one idea on how to pay for it.”
Those comments echoed concerns the White House expressed in a Feb. 8 statement of policy. The White House also said maintaining NASA’s budget at fiscal 2006 levels — $528 million less than the administration asked for — will hurt the agency’s ability to develop a replacement for the space shuttle.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Feb. 14 that lawmakers did the best they could considering the previous Congress failed to pass a spending bill. He denied that Democrats were trying to railroad a bill through without consulting Republicans, and said both parties were involved in its drafting.
“We inherited an unbelievable mess, and we tried to make the most of it,” Dorgan said.
McCain said he was pleased that the bill reined in earmarks. Compared with the $64 billion in earmarks the Congressional Research Service found in the fiscal 2006 budget, McCain said, this bill is largely free of so-called pork barrel spending.
McCain noted the bill was passed without a report, where he said the bulk of earmarks has been included in the past.
“Appropriations committees should take this as a guide in the future when it comes to earmarks,” McCain said. “Don’t include them, and don’t waste the taxpayers’ dollars.”
The joint resolution applies to all agencies except the Defense and Homeland Security departments, whose spending Congress approved before fiscal 2007 began Oct. 1.
Managers’ headaches
The headaches likely will continue for thousands of federal managers like Bond.
Bond, who started working at Transportation in 1978 and joined the IG’s office the following year, said the practice of using continuing resolutions — operating for a month or two under the previous fiscal year’s budget while Congress passes an overdue spending bill — is bad enough. But operating under one for more than one-third of the fiscal year is even worse.
Because of travel cuts, Bond said his Seattle office hasn’t been able to start any new investigations since the new fiscal year began in October. Bond’s organization instead has spent its time wrapping up previous investigations and planning what it will do when the money is released.
“When you cut back on travel, you can’t do your job in the best possible way,” Bond said.
Because of the restrictions — and because the Transportation IG isn’t getting the 3 percent funding increase it hoped for — Bond expects his office will have to table an expected investigation into how much money Transportation is doling out to universities under earmarked research and development grants, and how well those programs are working.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to start it,” Bond said. “We’re concerned about getting enough money to go through the end of the year.”
The IG this year will receive $75 million from government appropriations and reimbursements from audited agencies, Bond said. That is the same amount it received in fiscal 2006.
Though the Seattle office has had no turnover so far this fiscal year, Bond said, some other IG offices have not been able to fill positions vacated by retirements.
And auditors are required to have 80 hours of writing or technical training every two years, but training has been put on hold. Bond fears his office will now have to cram a full year’s worth of training and investigations into less than two-thirds of a year.
But the appropriation is little comfort for some managers, who say the 4½-month delay and denial of spending increases for 2007 have already wreaked havoc on their operations.
“It gets harder every year to work this way,” said Greggory Bond, a senior analyst for the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General in Seattle.
Under the stop-gap spending bills agencies had been operating under since October, IGs’ travel was cut to a minimum, delaying investigations. Training was on hold. Some offices did not fill vacancies.
“If we’re not traveling, that means more time for training,” Bond said. “But if we’re not training, that’s a lot of wasted time.”
Other agencies face bigger constraints under the approved funding, including the Defense Department, which lost funding for base closures, and NASA, which may face delays in developing a replacement for the space shuttle.
But to the White House’s chagrin, the law ignores the president’s recommendation to cut or scale back 141 federal programs, which it said would have saved $15 billion.
On an 81-15 vote, the Senate on Feb. 14 approved House Joint Resolution 20, which funds most government operations and programs at fiscal 2006 levels, but adds more than 100 pages of exceptions, including additional funding for agencies that were in danger of furloughing staff and money to cover half of the 2.2 percent pay raise. President Bush signed the bill into law the next day. The measures are identical to those the House passed Jan. 31.
Republicans object
Senate Republicans were not happy about how HJR 20 ended up. Tom Coburn, Okla.; James Inhofe, Okla.; and John McCain, Ariz., took the floor before the vote and denounced the Democratic leadership’s decision to not allow the $464 billion funding bill to be amended in any way. They also faulted the cut of $3.1 billion from the president’s funding request for military base closings and consolidations.
Coburn was especially incensed at what he called the joint resolution’s lack of clarity, dishonesty about costs and inclusion of $17 billion in hidden earmarks. He said he wanted to extend the previous continuing resolution for two weeks beyond its Feb. 15 end date to debate it, but said he was denied.
“It’s a scam, and the American people need to know it’s a scam,” Coburn said. “The way to lower taxes is to get rid of the waste, fraud, abuse and duplication present in government. This bill does none of that.”
McCain said Democrats plan to include Base Realignment and Closure Commission funding in a $93.4 billion military supplemental the White House is expected to submit in March. But Coburn said that will be too late to reap the cost savings BRAC was intended to provide.
McCain also criticized the bill’s restrictions on amendments and BRAC cuts: “This callous decision directly harms communities, as well as the military units placed in limbo by the sudden denial of funds.”
McCain also questioned how rolling BRAC funding into the supplemental — which is meant to pay for unexpected costs such as those arising from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — will affect soldiers.
“What critical war-fighting requirement will be cut in the supplemental to pay for BRAC costs?” McCain said. “What kind of a solution is that? I haven’t heard one idea on how to pay for it.”
Those comments echoed concerns the White House expressed in a Feb. 8 statement of policy. The White House also said maintaining NASA’s budget at fiscal 2006 levels — $528 million less than the administration asked for — will hurt the agency’s ability to develop a replacement for the space shuttle.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Feb. 14 that lawmakers did the best they could considering the previous Congress failed to pass a spending bill. He denied that Democrats were trying to railroad a bill through without consulting Republicans, and said both parties were involved in its drafting.
“We inherited an unbelievable mess, and we tried to make the most of it,” Dorgan said.
McCain said he was pleased that the bill reined in earmarks. Compared with the $64 billion in earmarks the Congressional Research Service found in the fiscal 2006 budget, McCain said, this bill is largely free of so-called pork barrel spending.
McCain noted the bill was passed without a report, where he said the bulk of earmarks has been included in the past.
“Appropriations committees should take this as a guide in the future when it comes to earmarks,” McCain said. “Don’t include them, and don’t waste the taxpayers’ dollars.”
The joint resolution applies to all agencies except the Defense and Homeland Security departments, whose spending Congress approved before fiscal 2007 began Oct. 1.
Managers’ headaches
The headaches likely will continue for thousands of federal managers like Bond.
Bond, who started working at Transportation in 1978 and joined the IG’s office the following year, said the practice of using continuing resolutions — operating for a month or two under the previous fiscal year’s budget while Congress passes an overdue spending bill — is bad enough. But operating under one for more than one-third of the fiscal year is even worse.
Because of travel cuts, Bond said his Seattle office hasn’t been able to start any new investigations since the new fiscal year began in October. Bond’s organization instead has spent its time wrapping up previous investigations and planning what it will do when the money is released.
“When you cut back on travel, you can’t do your job in the best possible way,” Bond said.
Because of the restrictions — and because the Transportation IG isn’t getting the 3 percent funding increase it hoped for — Bond expects his office will have to table an expected investigation into how much money Transportation is doling out to universities under earmarked research and development grants, and how well those programs are working.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to start it,” Bond said. “We’re concerned about getting enough money to go through the end of the year.”
The IG this year will receive $75 million from government appropriations and reimbursements from audited agencies, Bond said. That is the same amount it received in fiscal 2006.
Though the Seattle office has had no turnover so far this fiscal year, Bond said, some other IG offices have not been able to fill positions vacated by retirements.
And auditors are required to have 80 hours of writing or technical training every two years, but training has been put on hold. Bond fears his office will now have to cram a full year’s worth of training and investigations into less than two-thirds of a year.
