Senate Passes Legal Services Corp. Appropriation – $396 Million (2% Cut from Current Level)
From a National Legal Aid & Defender Association email:
Yesterday the Senate approved by a vote of 69 to 30 a package of three appropriations bills, including the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) appropriation bill for FY 2012. The measure includes an appropriation for the Legal Services Corporation of $396.1 million for next year. This amounts to a 2 percent cut from the current level of $404.2 million. The entire 2 percent comes from basic field funding. Both LSC management and the Office of Inspector General are funded at the same levels as FY 2011.
The House Appropriations Committee has previously allocated $300 million for FY 2012, a cut of $104.2 million (27.5 percent) from FY 2011 levels. It appears likely that negotiations between the House and Senate on the three appropriations bills passed by the Senate will proceed without any final House floor action on the CJS appropriations bills. The bill also includes funding packages for the Agriculture Department and Transportation – HUD.
The Senate bill was passed under budget level authority agreed to by the House and Senate during the debt ceiling debate last August. The House bill passed the committee under significantly lower overall budget authority included in the House budget resolution authored by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI). If House-Senate negotiators stick with the overall $1.043 trillion spending ceiling previously agreed upon in August, the process could proceed relatively smoothly toward a reconciliation of the two bills. Negotiations could begin as early as today. However, a number of House members have indicated their opposition to the overall spending ceiling adopted in August, and such opposition could slow down negotiations on the Senate package that includes LSC funding.
