CBO: Deal to avert government shutdown increases spending for fiscal year

The fiscal 2011 appropriations law enacted in April to avoid a government shutdown increases spending by $3.2 billion between now and the end of September, according to a new partial estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

The nonpartisan office found that total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be higher because of an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by $4.4 billion in reductions in other spending. "Part of the reason that total outlays will increase this year is that some defense funding was shifted from slower-spending to faster-spending activities," the report said. Discretionary outlays refer to how much money the government spends and the pace at which those funds are spent.

The White House and lawmakers reached a deal on April 8, literally at the 11th hour, on an appropriations bill that would keep the government running through the end of fiscal 2011, cutting $38.5 billion from current spending levels and allocating $513 billion for the defense budget. The nearly $39 billion in spending cuts included reductions in budget authority, which is how much the law allows the government to spend versus the actual expenditure.

CBO, which will complete its analysis of the effects of fiscal 2011 spending law in August, estimated that the appropriations measure would save $122 billion in the next decade and $183 billion in budget authority during that time.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, interpreted CBO's analysis as good news for Republicans and deficit hawks. "Examining the long-term savings, the new CBO numbers provide only a limited picture because it (1) does not include savings Republicans had won in all earlier continuing resolutions or (2) saving from interest on the debt and (3) didn't continue some savings from rescissions over the full 10 years," Buck wrote on Boehner's blog. Buck said taking those factors into account would reduce the deficit by $315 billion during the next decade.