Last week the House passed the FY13 Continuing Resolution and the FY13 Department of Defense appropriations bill. The CR will extend funding for other government agencies at last year’s levels but include a 0.098% across-the-board reduction “to ensure that aggregate spending in the Act complies with the discretionary spending limits in the Budget Control Act of 2011.” The bill’s top-line discretionary spending is set at $1.043 trillion. It is on top of these funding levels that the federal departments and agencies will be subject to sequestration cuts.  The Senate will likely take action this week to move the appropriations process forward via a companion CR and avert a government shut down.