Federal Budget News.....

By a vote of 12 to 10, the Senate Budget Committee reported out yesterday the FY2011 budget resolution.

The mark would freeze non-defense discretionary funding for three years. With an overall discretionary budget authority of $1.124 trillion for FY2011, this budget resolution would fund overall discretionary programs at $4 billion below the Administration request, with the $4 billion coming from international programs. Furthermore, the budget would establish discretionary spending caps through FY2013.

The Senate budget assumes a maximum Pell Grant award of $5,550 but leaves the shortfall of $5.5 billion in the program for the appropriators to address. The resolution would also include enough funding for health programs to allow for the Administration request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The budget also assumes that NASA would be funded at $1 billion above its FY2010 enacted budget. A number of reserve funds would be created, including one for energy. The resolution would support energy programs at $500 million more than the Administration’s request.

Included in the mark are two separate sets of reconciliation instructions, both of which are aimed at the Finance Committee. The first directs the committee to produce $2 billion in savings between FY2010 and FY2015, while the second mandates Finance to increase the statutory debt limit by $50 billion by the end of 2010.