Following the passage of the bipartisan omnibus budget agreement in January, goodwill continued to permeate Capitol Hill as Democrats and Republicans in both chambers passed a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling until March 2015.

Congress and the White House were able to come to an agreement on an omnibus spending deal this January, approving a budget for fiscal year (FY) 2014.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations held subcommittee hearings on the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget requests for the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

The House and Senate Appropriations committees released their non-emergency discretionary spending allocations for fiscal year (FY) 2014 this June. The Senate Appropriations Committee requested $1.058 trillion in non-emergency discretionary funds, while the House Appropriations Committee requested $967 billion. These bills authorize funding levels for all of the subcommittees, including the subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and the Environment.

For most of September, Congress was focused on considering a budget for 2014 before the 2013 fiscal year ended on September 30th. Congress, however, has failed to pass a budget or a Continuing Resolution (CR) and so all non-essential government services are shutting down, and thousands of non-essential government employees, including those at the National Science Foundation, the Department of the Interior, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and NASA, are being furloughed.