On March 17, 2011, Congress passed P.L. 112-6 —the sixth in a series of continuing resolutions (CRs)—to fund the federal government through April 8. It cut $6 billion in discretionary funding, of which $50 million came from DOT (funding for a rail safety technology grant program) and $18 million from HUD (brownfields program). On March 9, 2011, the Senate rejected H.R. 1 , and also rejected a Senate substitute amendment to H.R. 1 that would have provided $51 billion more in total federal discretionary funding than H.R. 1 (i.e., a cut of $49 billion from the FY2011 request and $10 billion below the FY2010 enacted level). On March 2, 2011, Congress passed P.L. 112-4 , providing funding for the federal government through March 18. It cut $4 billion in discretionary funding, of which $1.2 billion came from THUD ($947 million from two DOT highway earmark programs and $195 million from two HUD Community Development Fund earmark programs). On February 19, 2011, the House passed H.R. 1 , a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the remainder of FY2011. It would have provided $100 billion less in total federal discretionary funding for FY2011 than the President requested, and $61 billion less than enacted for FY2010. For THUD, the bill would have provided $16 billion less than requested for FY2011, and $15 billion less than enacted for FY2010 (though some of these cuts were actually rescissions of unobligated grant funds from previous years). On December 21, 2010, the outgoing 111 th Congress passed P.L. 111-322 , a continuing resolution providing funding for the federal government through March 4, 2011. Programs were generally funded at their FY2010 level. On September 30, 2010, the President signed P.L. 111-242 , a continuing resolution to fund the government for the first two months of FY2011 (through December 3, 2010). Programs were generally funded at their FY2010 funding level. On July 29, 2010, the House passed its version of the FY2011 Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ( H.R. 5850 ). The bill provided a total of $126.4 billion in funding, $4.3 billion (3.5%) more than FY2010 enacted level and $2.5 billion (2.2%) more than requested. As the House rejected a new $4 billion infrastructure fund proposed by the Administration, the House bill's increase over the requested funding levels for existing programs is larger than the bottom line comparisons indicate. On July 23, 2010, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported its version of the FY2011 Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ( S. 3644 ). The bill provided $122.8 billion, $675 million (0.5%) more than the FY2010 enacted level and $841 million (0.6%) below the Administration request. As the committee also rejected the proposed $4 billion infrastructure fund, it was able to provide the requested level of funding, or more, for most programs while staying below the total amount requested. The President's FY2011 request for the programs covered by this appropriations bill was $123.7 billion (after scorekeeping adjustments). This was $1.5 billion (1.2%) more than the amount enacted in the FY2010 THUD appropriations act. The net total budgetary resources request for DOT was $78.4 billion, $2.0 billion (2.6%) more than equivalent amount provided in the FY2010 THUD appropriations act. The largest new item in the request was $4 billion for a proposed infrastructure finance fund. In the 111 th Congress, the House-passed bill ( H.R. 5850 ) would have provided $80.1 billion; the Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended $76.5 billion. Both rejected the new infrastructure fund proposal (which allowed them to increase funding for other programs within the overall amount of the budget request). The HUD funding request was $45.6 billion ($48.5 billion in total, but subtracting $2.9 billion in offsetting receipts and collections). The gross total is $1.5 billion (3%) more than the equivalent amount provided in the regular annual appropriations for FY2010. The largest new item in the request was $350 million for a "Transforming Rental Assistance" initiative (to switch certain HUD rental assistance programs to subsidies that could go with the tenant to new private housing, rather than being tied to the rental unit). In the 111 th Congress, the House-passed bill would have provided $46.5 billion; the Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended $46.6 billion. Both rejected the "Transforming Rental Assistance" request. The President requested $386 million for other related agencies in the THUD bill, less than 1% more than the $384 million provided for FY2010. The bulk of this funding is for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation ($250 million, up from $233 million in FY2010) and the National Transportation Safety Board ($100 million, up from $98 million in FY2010). In the 111 th Congress, the House-passed bill would provide $447 million; the Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended $459 million. The President also requested termination of three programs that received a total of $345 million in the FY2010 THUD appropriations act, and reductions totaling $947 million in four programs that received a total of $3.0 billion in FY2010 (see Table 1 ). This was part of a budget-wide effort that requested 126 terminations, reductions, and savings in the FY2011 budget, totaling more than $23 billion, from "programs that are outdated, ineffective, or duplicative." In the FY2010 budget request, the President requested termination of five programs under THUD that had received a total of $212 million in FY2009. Congress did not fund two of the five programs in the FY2010 THUD act; the remaining three received increased funding, totaling $346 million. Table 2 notes the status of the FY2011 THUD appropriations bill, and Table 3 lists the total funding provided for each of the titles in the bill for FY2010 and the amount requested for that title for FY2011. The numbers cited in discussions of the THUD appropriations act can be confusing. For example, in the 111 th Congress, the House Committee on Appropriations' summary of its draft bill reported the "Bill Total" of the President's request as $68.74 billion, while the Senate Committee on Appropriations' summary of its draft bill reports the "Total Resources" in its bill as $122.5 billion. The two bills were not that dissimilar; the House bill actually contained $126.4 billion in total budget resources. The "Bill Total" cited in the House summary merely omitted reference to one type of budget authority present in the THUD bill, contract authority. The Senate summary actually cited two figures for the bill: "Budget Authority Only" ($67.9 billion) and "Total Resources" ($122.5 billion), the difference being the inclusion of contract authority (generally referred to as "limitations on obligations") in the "Total Resources" figure. Contract authority is a form of budget authority based on federal trust fund resources, in contrast to "regular" (or discretionary) budget authority, which is based on the resources of the General Fund of the Treasury. The FY2011 Budget request for THUD requested $68.7 billion from the General Fund of the Treasury, and another $54.5 billion from trust funds, primarily the Highway Trust Fund and the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. When Appropriations Committee subcommittees are given their "302(b) allocations"—that is, when the total amount that the Appropriations Committee has to spend for a fiscal year is divided among the subcommittees—that figure includes only discretionary budget authority; contract authority from trust funds is not included. Thus, the House THUD Subcommittee's FY2011 302(b) allocation was $67.4 billion. But the subcommittee's bill also includes the contract authority funds (which are made available through limitations on obligations). Between 2003 and 2008, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations have reorganized their subcommittee structure three times. In 2003, a new subcommittee (Homeland Security) was added; in order to maintain the existing number of subcommittees at 13, the transportation appropriations subcommittees were combined with the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government appropriations subcommittees, becoming the Subcommittees on Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies. In early 2005, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations again reorganized their subcommittee structures. The House Committee on Appropriations reduced its number of subcommittees from 13 to 10. This change included combining the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies subcommittee with the District of Columbia subcommittee; the resulting subcommittee also was given jurisdiction over appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Judiciary, as well as several additional independent agencies, and became known as the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies (or TTHUD). The Senate Committee on Appropriations reduced its number of subcommittees to 12. The Senate also added jurisdiction over appropriations for the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the Judiciary to the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies subcommittee.