By Jolie Lee
Federal News Radio

A continuing resolution introduced in the House will keep government funded through Nov. 18, giving Congress time to hash out a budget for fiscal year 2012.

With the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, Congress has not passed any appropriations bills.

“The CR allows funding for the federal government to continue at a rate of $1.043 trillion – the total amount to which the Congress and the White House agreed in the recent debt-ceiling legislation. This is a 1.5 percent cut from the fiscal year 2011 level,” said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, in a statement.

The stopgap funding bill includes $3.65 billion for disaster relief for recovery and rebuilding efforts. Included in this amount is $1 billion that will be available immediately once the bill is passed. Also, $2.65 billion is for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which has been depleted after recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Irene.

“The American people simply do not want or deserve – and our recovering economy can scarcely handle – the dangerous instability of a government shutdown, or any unnecessary holdups in disaster recovery efforts,” Rogers said in the statement.

The bill also extends the deadline for the Postal Service to make a $5.5 billion prepayments to its retiree health fund. The financially-strapped Postal Service today is laying out a proposal to cut facilities and has previously said it plans to cut 220,000 positions, including 100,000 through attrition.

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