The new fiscal year for the Federal government starts tomorrow. Why October 1 is beyond me. Anyway, for the ninth year in a row, the House of Representatives has failed to pass a budget before the start of the fiscal year. No worries. They've passed a stop gap bill that will ensure that government is funded and won't have to shut down tomorrow. One little problem. The stop gap bill funds almost everything at current levels. The big exception? State block grants. This is money given out to states to help the very poorest of the poor. Those block grants have been cut by ~50%. And the House? They're off on a break. Now when the Schiavo case was big news, members of the House came back en masse from their break. In this case, which affects millions of people living so far below the poverty line that reaching that line is a pipe dream? The House has gone on a break.
What's the odds the members of the House give themselves a big fat pay raise this year?
3 comments:
your NSF funds gonna be late, too?
*extreme angry face*
Shouldn't be - they're being funded at current levels. Usually NSF and NIH reduce the number of new awards and continue to fund current ones. What burns me is that the Republican House leader said they couldn't vote on a Democrat's amendment that would fund the block grants because it would be too disruptive of the House break... I guess our elected representatives are becoming more and more like our President - taking a vacation is more important than meals and shelter for a few million poor people.
priorities, my friend, priorities.
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