House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said today that
GOP lawmakers are eying “a million options” for dealing with a
stopgap spending bill designed to prevent a government shutdown. House
Republicans were forced to withdraw the measure from consideration this week
due to objections from GOP conservatives focused on defunding
“Obamacare.”
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Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office today
released a letter about the CR. “CBO has underscored that the House’s CR
funds defense at sequester levels, though that point is obscured because CBO
talks about budget function 050, which is $20 billion or so lower than DOD’s
topline,” Russell Rumbaugh, the director of the Stimson Center’s Budgeting
for Foreign Affairs and Defense program, told InsideDefense.com.
“What CBO made crystal clear is that such a
level sets up yet another ding to the defense budget,” said Rumbaugh.
“The [fiscal year 2014] caps are lower than the FY-13 sequester, so
funding DOD for three months at the higher level means the last nine months have
to pay more.” It remains to be seen, however, whether the government would
opt to spend at that higher rate given last year’s debacle, even if the CR
allows it.
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