Reauth, Spending Bills Still Need To Happen
Sep 28th, 2009 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Politics & PolicyYou can’t tell from reading the news but members of Congress have other things to do besides fight about health care reform. They have to fight about global climate change and energy policy. They have to fight about re-writing the rules for the financial services industry. And, under the category of housekeeping, they have to fight about much more mundane matters like spending bills and re-authorization bills. The recent history of re-authorizing the U.S. Small Business Administration is much more convoluted and tortuous than one might have expected from the federal government’s small business agency. So here we are, two years and countless continuing resolutions later, and both the House and Senate Committees are still working up a batch of SBA re-authorization bills.
Last week, Congress passed yet another of those continuing resolutions, this one authored by House Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY). Interestingly, she only asked for a one month extension of the SBA programs, to give her and her staff time to complete their work with their colleagues in the Senate. Senate Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-LA) would have been happier with more time but maintains the goal of meeting that one-month deadline. As for the Financial Services Appropriations bill (of which funding for the SBA is a part), that piece of legislation is simply waiting to be brought to the floor for a vote. Good progress but the chances of getting all these spending bills signed into law before year’s end diminishes with every week that passes.
