Although the House passed and the Senate Appropriations Committee reported a separate legislative branch appropriations bill ( H.R. 2551 ), no further action was taken before the beginning of FY2012. From October 1, 2011, until December 23, 2011, the legislative branch operated on a series of continuing appropriations resolutions ( P.L. 112-33 , through October 4; P.L. 112-36 , through November 18; P.L. 112-55 , through December 16; P.L. 112-67 , through December 17; and P.L. 112-68 , through December 23). Division G of the FY2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act ( H.R. 2055 , P.L. 112-74 ), which was enacted on December 23, 2011, provided $4.307 billion in discretionary funding for the legislative branch. This level is $236.9 million (5.2%) below the FY2011 enacted level and $549.6 million (11.3%) below the request. The legislative branch represents approximately 0.4% of the total discretionary appropriations provided in this act. The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 ( P.L. 112-10 ) provided $4.54 billion for legislative branch activities for FY2011. This act continued funding and language contained in the FY2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act ( P.L. 111-68 ), unless otherwise specified, and included an across-the-board rescission of 0.2%. The FY2011 level represented a decrease of nearly 3% from the $4.66 billion provided for FY2010. From October 1, 2010, until the enactment of this legislation on April 11, 2011, the legislative branch operated on continuing resolutions. These continuing resolutions included P.L. 111-242 (through December 3, 2010), P.L. 111-290 (through December 18, 2010), P.L. 111-317 (through December 21, 2010), P.L. 111-322 (through March 4, 2011), P.L. 112-4 (through March 18, 2011) and P.L. 112-6 (through April 8, 2011). Additionally, both the House and Senate adopted language in the 112 th Congress affecting spending within each chamber. H.Res. 22 , adopted by the House on January 6, 2011, reduces the authorized amounts for the Members' Representational Allowances, House leadership offices, and all committees except the Committee on Appropriations by 5%, with a 9% reduction for the Committee on Appropriations. An amendment ( S.Amdt. 182 ) offered by Senator Nelson (NE) to S. 493 , the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Reauthorization Act of 2011, stated, "It is the sense of the Senate, that it should lead by example and reduce the budget of the Senate by at least 5 percent." The amendment was adopted on March 16, 2011. No further action on this bill occurred as of the date of this report. Section 1902 of P.L. 112-10 also contained language reducing allowances for Senators' offices by 5%. Previously, the FY2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act ( P.L. 111-68 ) provided $4.66 billion for FY2010 legislative branch operations, and the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act provided $4.40 billion. In FY2009, an additional $25 million was provided for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. P.L. 111-32 , the FY2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act, also contained funding for the police radio system ($71.6 million) and Congressional Budget Office ($2 million). The FY2012 U.S. Budget submitted on February 14, 2011, contained a request for $4.857 billion in new budget authority for legislative branch activities, an increase of approximately 7% from the FY2011 enacted level. This request, however, preceded the enactment of the FY2011 appropriations law on April 11, 2011, which reduced FY2011 funding by nearly 3% from the FY2010 level. By law, the legislative branch request is submitted to the President and included in the budget without change. A substantial portion of the increase requested by legislative branch entities was to meet (1) mandatory expenses, such as increased government contributions, and (2) expenses related to increases in the costs of goods and services due to inflation. Table 3 lists the dates of hearings of the Legislative Branch Subcommittees in 2011. The House Appropriations Committee released a subcommittee allocation containing $4.314 billion in new budget authority for the legislative branch for FY2012. This level is $227 million less than the FY2011 enacted level. The House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch held a markup on July 7, 2011, and reported the bill to the full committee with no amendments by voice vote. The full committee held its markup on July 13, 2011. Two amendments were adopted by voice vote, including a manager's amendment with report language related to Open World and workforce diversity, and an amendment offered by Ranking Member Honda directing the House Chief Administrative Office to review and improve contracting controls. Three amendments were rejected, including (1) an amendment offered by Representative Flake prohibiting the use of the Members' Representational Allowance for online advertising (voice vote); (2) an amendment offered by Representative Moran prohibiting the use of funds for the purchase of polystyrene products for food service facilities in the House of Representatives (Roll no. 1, 18-26); and (3) an amendment offered by Representative Flake to prohibit the use of the Members' Representational Allowance for certain mailings not on a Member's stationery (voice vote). The full committee ordered reported a $3.3 billion bill with a roll call vote of 28-19 ( H.R. 2551 , H.Rept. 112-148 ). The total funding level represents a $227 million, or 6.4%, reduction from the FY2011 level (not including Senate items). The House Rules Committee met on July 20, 2011, to discuss a special rule for the legislative branch appropriations bill. A total of 33 amendments were submitted, and 16 were made in order under the rule for consideration of the bill ( H.Res. 359 , H.Rept. 112-173 ). The House agreed to this rule on July 21, 2011 (Roll no. 613, 239-172). Consideration of the bill began on July 21, 2011, and continued the next day. The following 16 amendments—the most offered on the legislative branch appropriations bill since at least FY1984— were considered, and 7 were adopted: 1. H.Amdt. 697 , offered by Mr. Honda, to transfer Member Transition Activities funds to increase the Capitol Police fund by $1,000,000 in order to establish a Security Fund for Members' District Office Security Upgrades, which was agreed to by voice vote. 2. H.Amdt. 698 , offered by Mr. Watt, to reduce funding for the Office of Congressional Ethics by 40% ($619,200) and transfer the funds to the Spending Reduction Account, which failed by recorded vote (102-302). 3. H.Amdt. 699 , offered by Mr. Broun, to reduce funding for the Joint Economic Committee by $1,050,750 (25%) and transfer those dollars to the spending reduction account, which failed by voice vote. 4. H.Amdt. 700 , offered by Mr. Broun, to reduce funding for the Office of Compliance to the FY2008 level ($467,000 reduction), which failed by voice vote. 5. H.Amdt. 701 , offered by Ms. Hayworth, to reduce funding for the Botanic Garden by $632,780, which was agreed to by recorded vote (299-112). 6. H.Amdt. 702 , offered by Mr. Broun, to reduce funding for the Botanic Garden to the FY2008 level (a $3,192,000 reduction), which failed by recorded vote (153-260). 7. H.Amdt. 703 , offered by Mr. Altmire, to restore $1 million in funding to the Thirty-Year Mass Deacidification Program with the Library of Congress's Salaries and Expenses Account, which was agreed to by voice vote. 8. H.Amdt. 704 , offered by Mr. Stutzman, to reduce the GPO funding by $4,946,140.80 by transferring $3,414,150.29 from GPO, Congressional Printing and Binding and $1,531,990.51 from GPO, Office of Superintendent of Documents, to the spending reduction account, which was agreed to by recorded vote (218-194). 9. H.Amdt. 705 , offered by Mr. Paulsen, to prevent the distribution of printed legislation to Member offices unless a Member requests the legislation, which was agreed to by voice vote. 10. H.Amdt. 706 , offered by Mr. Paulsen, to prevent use of funds to distribute printed copies of the Congressional Record to Member offices, which was agreed to by voice vote. 11. H.Amdt. 707 , offered by Mr. Thompson, to prohibit use of funds to purchase, acquire, install, or use any medium screw base compact fluorescent lamp or light bulb (CFL), which failed by recorded vote (130-283). 12. H.Amdt. 708 , offered by Mr. Hanna, to prohibit use of funds by the Chief Administrative Officer to make any payments from any MRA for the leasing of a vehicle in an amount that exceeds $1,000 in any month, which was agreed to by voice vote. 13.