Democrats set up multiple fronts in budget fight

The budget fight between Democrats and President Bush moved forward on a number of fronts Thursday, as roughly $622 billion in discretionary spending was on its way to Bush's desk, along with a continuing resolution to buy a month's time for negotiations.

The Senate was headed toward passage of a $471 billion Pentagon budget bill late Thursday, to which the CR is attached.

Bush will sign the Defense bill, but the $150.7 billion Labor-HHS measure is another matter, despite its much smaller proposed increases over the current year.

The measure is $9.8 billion above Bush's request, which would cut $3.6 billion from last year's levels.

Similar cuts have fallen flat in recent years with Republicans in control, but the minority this year has thus far been able to make Bush's veto threats stand up -- although only by a handful of votes.

"The choice is whether or not we're going to exercise our own judgment as an independent body ... or whether we're simply going to wire our buttons to the White House door, "House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said.

The measure was approved on a 274-141 vote, just shy of enough to override a veto.

If the bill fails and the White House does not negotiate, Obey said the only alternative is to go down to Bush's budget number, at which point there is not "a snowball's chance in Hades" that individual members' earmarks or funding priorities would survive.

The Defense bill was another matter, passing the House on a 400-15 margin, and headed for voice vote approval in the Senate.

The bill earlier faced an hours-long delay, as Senate Republicans contemplated using a new procedural tactic to split the CR off of the underlying bill.

The Defense bill does not contain funding to continue military operations in Iraq, and Republicans sought to add another $70 billion to keep the troops supplied for another six months.

House Democrats decided late Thursday to vote next week on a $50 billion measure, but with conditions Republicans and Bush find so onerous that it is unlikely to become law.

For some anti-war House liberals, the withdrawal requirements are not onerous enough, which was causing problems in that chamber.

If Senate Republicans had successfully raised a point of order and struck the CR, not only would it have delayed passage of the Defense bill but caused a ping-pong battle over the CR, with the House having to generate a bill, pass it and send it to the Senate, where it would be open for amendment.

That could have brought deliberations perilously close to Thursday's deadline for passing a new CR to keep the government functioning.

"Republicans tried shutting down the government about 12 years ago. ... It didn't work so well then. We're not going to do that," Senate Majority Leader Reid, D-Nev., said.

Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who led efforts to add the $70 billion bridge fund, said the Pentagon had mixed feelings about his potential procedural move.

"They want the bridge fund, but they also want the Defense bill," he said.

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Jon Kyl of Arizona and others wanted to restore $3 billion for border security to the underlying bill, but the money is contained in a separate Homeland Security measure that is being held in reserve.

Separately Thursday, a House-Senate conference committee approved a $50.9 billion fiscal 2008 Transportation-HUD measure.

That is also likely to be vetoed because it is $3 billion above Bush's funding request, which would have gutted popular programs like Amtrak and an array of housing and community development programs.

It includes a prohibition on a Bush administration pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to travel widely on roads around the United States.

The bill would provide $195 million to help rebuild the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed in August, as well as $200 million to help provide counseling to homeowners affected by the subprime mortgage crisis.