Congress Punts on Fiscal Year 2009 Budget

Before leaving for their election campaigns, Congress passed a continuing budget resolution for fiscal year 2009 to keep federal agencies and programs running until March 6, 2009. FY 2009 began on October 1, 2008. Aside from defense, homeland security and veterans programs, all other federal agencies will continue to be funded at the current FY ’08 level. In reality, this amounts to a budget cut for federal agencies since they will not receive additional funding to cover increased overhead and salary costs.