Legislative Update: Continuing Resolution Extends Government Funding through March 23 February 2018

On February 9, President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution that will fund the operations of the federal government, including ARC, through March 23. The bill continues the Commission’s funding at the FY 2017 annual level of $152 million through that date, minus a small across-the-board reduction. ARC programs and activities funded are the same as those funded through the agency’s FY 2017 appropriation. The legislation also sets overall budget numbers to guide the House and Senate appropriations committees in drafting an omnibus appropriations bill for the rest of FY 2018. Action on that omnibus measure, which would contain ARC’s full-year funding, is expected in March.

The FY 2018 appropriations bill passed by the House in July 2017 contains $130 million for ARC (including $70 million for ARC’s regular program, $50 million for the POWER Initiative, and $10 million for a program of high-speed broadband deployment in economically distressed counties in Central Appalachia), while the version passed by the Senate appropriations committee in July provides $142 million for ARC (including $70 million for ARC’s regular program, $50 million for POWER, $16 million for workforce and industrial site development in Southern and South Central Appalachia, and $6 million for a program of basic infrastructure improvements in economically distressed counties in Central Appalachia).