News from the Program Office To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs" cc: "Wendy E Norton, Program Analyst, Reston, VA" , "Joanne C Taylor, Secretary (Typing), Reston, VA" , "Janet N Arneson, Secretary (Typing), Reston, VA" Subject: News from the Program Office Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 17:35:04 -0500 From: "James G Peters, Acting Program Officer, Reston, VA" note 21 Greetings from Reston - We're still budget-bound and snow-bound (but at least we're making progress on the snow) After returning to work this week, I can see that Bob and Jack have kept you well-informed as to important happenings. Here's some additional info. We can detect no action, as yet, on the Interior appropriation bill since the Presidential veto. We've heard some comments to the affect that several members of Congress would like to see the bill passed soon, but the House has not taken any official action as of this writing. Because Congress is in recess until January 22nd, we don't expect to hear of any action before next week. If I had to guess (always a dangerous activity), I'd say the Interior bill has a good chance of passage before the end of the fiscal year and perhaps much sooner, but I reserve the right to deny this guess on September 30th. This week the House leadership has been making statements about two issues of concern to us. (1) All seem to agree that the furloughs have not been productive; they are espousing a position of avoiding any more furloughs for the remainder of the year. And (2) the House will explore the possibility of "targeted appropriations"; that is, funding popular programs (like the national parks) but at somewhat reduced levels, while cutting "pet Presidential programs" like Americorps much more deeply. [No indications as to how this approach would affect USGS.] In any case, budget talks between Congress and the White House are at a near standstill this week. As one White House spokesman put it, "the talks are not dead, but vital signs are very weak". Congressional leaders have canceled talks yesterday and today; no future talks are scheduled, as yet. As you know our current Continuing Resolution (CR) runs out on mid-night, Friday, Jan. 26. The terms of the present CR are exactly the same as for the last one; that is, we are funded at the FY95 level for all our programs. On or before Jan. 26, we anticipate that another CR will be passed to avoid further shutdown possibly at reduced funding levels. But we must remain prepared for another furlough. As you are well aware, Congressional actions this year are unpredictable. How do we pay for furlough costs of staff working on reimbursable projects? This question is being addressed by the Senior Staff now. A guidance memo from Bob should be out early next week. The memo will acknowledge that there is no "extra" money to pay for furlough costs and that flexibility is needed to deal with varying reactions from reimbursable partners. It may come as no surprise to learn that the FY97 budget process is at least 2 months behind its normal schedule. In the past, the President presents his new budget to Congress on the second Tuesday of February. But because of the FY96 budget uncertainties and the furloughs, no agencies have received guidance from OMB (called a "passback") as to our allowable budget request. As this is an election year, the Presidents' budget strategy is very uncertain at this point. It looks to me as though the FY97 process might be just as "fascinating" as the FY96 process has been. That's all the info. I have to share currently. If you have topics or questions you'd like some feedback about, please let me know and I'll address them in the next message. In the meantime, try to reassure your staffs that USGS has much support in Congress and that amid the storm, our ship remains (fairly) steady.