Senate Rejects House CR with FCC, CPB Cuts

As expected, the Senate officially voted not to approve the Republican-backed continuing resolution (CR) appropriations bill that would defund the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules and its chief diversity officer, as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The House had approved the bill before the President's Day break last month, which would have funded the government through September but with 60 billion or so in Republican-backed budget cuts. When it was clear that was not going to get approved before the March 4 expiration of the last continuing resolution, a two-week stopgap CR was passed with a handful of cuts -- including to some broadband stimulus funding through the Department of Agriculture -- but none of the above cuts. Congress must still agree on a new CR, either short-term again of the longer-term version, by March 18, when the current CR runs out. Then, of course, it must eventually pass an appropriations bill, which it has been trying to do since last year.