FY2007 NASA budget

[cartmancakes]

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22585

Regarding the above article...

I have a question.  I thought the Fiscal Years go from September to August.  Didn't FY07 start a couple of months ago?  How can they still be arguing over funds?

[evancise]

Over the last few years, the government rarely passes the budget before the new fiscal year starts (10/1).  So they pass a "continuing resolution" to operate under the previous year's budget until the new budget gets approved.  Since most agencies have spent their full budget by 9/30, this usually means that the government is operating in a restricted capacity until they get their new funding for the next year.

A continuing resolution expires at a certain time and then Congress has to either have a budget passed or renew the continuing resolution.  A few years back, Congress elected not to renew the resolution, so the government actually shut down - it was in December, I believe.

[Johno]

Interesting.  Has Congress ever decided to block the budget?  And what would that do to the presidency?

(In Australia, a rarely-used but possible tactic is to "Block Supply" - if the opposition controls the Senate, the Government has to convince them that the budget is realistic and fair.  If they cannot do this, the opposition is within its rights to reject it.  A government cannot govern without money, and if this happens the Governor General has the power to dismiss the government and call for a new election.  It is therefore possible for the hostile senate to force an election in this way, but it is considered an extreme measure, and whilst it's been threatened a few times, it has actually only ever been done once - resulting in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1975.)

[evancise]

They can't necessarily block the budget in the same manner as you describe, but both the House and the Senate have to pass the same budget bill.  That means it can get stuck in committee for a while as both sides try to come up with a budget everyone agrees on.  Needless to say it's harder to do when different parties are in control of each side.  That's why everyone will want to get this year's budget passed before January when the new Congress takes over.  Of course the President can also veto the budget if it's passed by both houses, which basically starts the whole process over again.  But if any side drags this out, the government will basically shut down - their salaries included - until new funding gets released.  So ususally we see budgets passed in December.

They can also elect to break the budget into smaller bills and pass things piece meal.  I think I heard that NASA's budget was going to get passed in this fashion, along with several other budgets, in the next week or so.

[cartmancakes]

So, the money is flowing in for FY07.  Is that correct?  They just don't know what the full funding will be until January at the latest?

[evancise]

Well, the politics of budgets is shrouded in mystery.  To my knowledge, so far FY07 money has not been released yet.