Conferees may set spending levels in Defense bill

House and Senate conferees on the fiscal 2005 Defense appropriations conference report are planning to attach a provision designating an overall fiscal 2005 discretionary spending target of $821.9 billion for the Senate, putting an end to the budget stalemate that has persisted for months.

The House adopted that spending target when it approved the rule for floor debate on the fiscal 2005 budget resolution, which has languished in the Senate due to an unrelated disagreement over tax cut offsets. Without a budget resolution in place, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has been limited to an overall spending target of $814.2 billion for fiscal 2005, the level set by last year's budget resolution.

"That's a $7 billion hole that's in everyone's best interests to get rid of," said one aide familiar with the talks.

The maneuver allows conferees on the Defense appropriations bill to remove the emergency designation Stevens placed on $7.2 billion in Pentagon funds in the Senate version, which he was forced to do to get around the fiscal 2004 budget cap. With a deeming resolution in place on the Defense spending bill to boost the Senate's allocation to $821.9 billion, equal to the House number, Stevens would not have to cut $7.2 billion from other, non-defense spending bills to come into compliance with last year's budget.

It also prevents a situation in the House where -- if it had receded to the Senate position and classified the $7.2 billion as an emergency -- it would have freed up additional billions under the House's allocation and angered GOP fiscal conservatives in the process. The move also allows Stevens to set formal 302(b) limits for his 13 subcommittees -- and thus enable him to raise 60-vote points of order against attempts to increase spending through amendments on the floor. But given time constraints, Senate GOP leaders are still expected to bring an omnibus to the floor in September, after the House sends over a vehicle.