On a vote of 245 in favor and 178 opposed, the $410 billion fiscal year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill passed the House February 25. The Senate has to vote on the bill next week because the continuing resolution funding federal government operations at fiscal 2008 levels expires March 6. Unless the Senate passes the omnibus before that deadline, another continuing resolution would be necessary to avoid a government shutdown.
This appropriation for fiscal 2009 includes budget increases of about 8% for most federal government operations. It also contains 8,330 earmarks, which can be viewed at this link:
http://appropriations.house.gov/FY2009_consolidated.shtml
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he expects the bill to pass the Senate before the March 6 deadline, so when federal employees leave work Friday afternoon they will know they can report back on Monday morning, expecting to get paid for their efforts.
Meanwhile, President Obama unveiled his budget outline for fiscal 2010, which for the first time in many years actually includes every dollar the federal government truly expects to spend, including war spending by the Department of Defense, and a contingency fund for natural disaster relief. The total budget is $3.55 trillion.
The Obama budget outline includes plans for spending over the next ten years, rather than the five year plans the Bush administration was fond of presenting. The outline contains a few things which should give encouragement to the construction industry:
Spending $150 billion over ten years for clean energy initiatives.
Spending $5 billion over 5 years for high speed rail construction, in addition to the $8 billion appropriated in the stimulus legislation.
Spending $64.5 billion on other transportation projects.
In other pro-construction talk around Washington, Interior Secretary Salazar wants to fund a Civilian Conservation Corps of 10,000 young trades workers to begin addressing the $8 billion backlog in national park projects, starting with such urban facilities as Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Frederick Douglass Home in Washington, D.C.
One negative in the outline is the suggestion that the stimulus bill's one year deferral of the new three percent withholding tax on government contractors will not be made permanent, and collection of the tax will start next year.
This appropriation for fiscal 2009 includes budget increases of about 8% for most federal government operations. It also contains 8,330 earmarks, which can be viewed at this link:
http://appropriations.house.gov/FY2009_consolidated.shtml
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he expects the bill to pass the Senate before the March 6 deadline, so when federal employees leave work Friday afternoon they will know they can report back on Monday morning, expecting to get paid for their efforts.
Meanwhile, President Obama unveiled his budget outline for fiscal 2010, which for the first time in many years actually includes every dollar the federal government truly expects to spend, including war spending by the Department of Defense, and a contingency fund for natural disaster relief. The total budget is $3.55 trillion.
The Obama budget outline includes plans for spending over the next ten years, rather than the five year plans the Bush administration was fond of presenting. The outline contains a few things which should give encouragement to the construction industry:
Spending $150 billion over ten years for clean energy initiatives.
Spending $5 billion over 5 years for high speed rail construction, in addition to the $8 billion appropriated in the stimulus legislation.
Spending $64.5 billion on other transportation projects.
In other pro-construction talk around Washington, Interior Secretary Salazar wants to fund a Civilian Conservation Corps of 10,000 young trades workers to begin addressing the $8 billion backlog in national park projects, starting with such urban facilities as Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Frederick Douglass Home in Washington, D.C.
One negative in the outline is the suggestion that the stimulus bill's one year deferral of the new three percent withholding tax on government contractors will not be made permanent, and collection of the tax will start next year.
