Congress late last week was again heading toward a missed deadline for completing work on spending bills for the Department of Education and several other federal agencies in time for the start of a new fiscal year.
Lawmakers were working on a 鈥渃ontinuing resolution鈥� for fiscal 2006, which began Oct. 1, to keep the federal government running until Nov. 18. Neither the House nor the Senate has voted on the education spending bill, though the appropriations committees of the two chambers have approved different bills.
Each version of the education bill sets discretionary spending for the Education Department at $56.7 billion, or a 0.25 percent increase over fiscal 2005, though each bill would parcel the money out in different ways.
