Washington WINDOW: CONGRESS GETS GENEROUS WITH RESEARCH FUNDING

摘要

The federal government's new fiscal year began Oct. 1. If you think that means all federal agencies have their new budgets and are busy implementing all their new programs, you haven't been paying attention, either this year or for most of the past 20. For Congress to pass all 13 appropriations bills in time for the president to sign them and have funding in place by the start of the fiscal year is the exception, not the rule, You might recall that Congress did not complete work on the fiscal year 2003 budget until March, more than six months after it was due. And, even then, they had to roll all the remaining bills into a behemoth "omnibus" bill that was some 5,000 pages long. But don't worry― all members read the whole thing before they voted on it.