House sends omnibus to Bush, likely concluding standoff

Putting an end to a seesaw, yearlong battle over federal spending priorities, Democrats and President Bush shelved their animosity as Congress finished work on a $555 billion spending bill Wednesday.

The deal's clincher was approval of $70 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush is expected to sign the measure when it reaches his desk.

The House approved the war funds 272-142 Wednesday, over the objections of anti-war Democrats, including House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wisc.

Most of the chamber's Democratic leadership voted for it, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did not vote but released a statement saying, "I cannot support spending billions more in Iraq with no strings attached, particularly in the same week that the President said we cannot afford to fund basic priorities here at home."

Inclusion of the war funding was the price of doing business with Bush, who said he would veto any omnibus measure that did not include Iraq money or that put strings on it, or exceeded his overall spending limits.

Regardless, even after shifting around funding priorities and employing budget gimmicks, Democrats were able to provide less than a 3 percent boost on average for domestic spending over last year, in many cases not enough to keep up with inflation.

"Here we go again: another payment on a war that should not have been fought," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. "This president held these programs hostage just to prop up his failed policy. This is not only shameful; it's unacceptable."

A beleaguered Obey has tried tactic after procedural tactic, public relations campaign after public relations campaign, to try to achieve the twin goals of conditioning the war money and boosting domestic programs.

During the months-long veto battle with Bush, Obey at times tried the carrot -- wooing GOP support by funding their priorities and steering clear of contentious policy riders, and he also tried the stick -- threatening to strip earmarked projects.

In the end, Obey appeared resigned to the status quo unless voters force a change in November and "we elect more progressive voices in the Senate, and elect a president who has more progressive policies domestically and a different vision" for Iraq and the Middle East.

For the wars, Bush requested a total of $196.4 billion in fiscal 2008, including about $6.9 billion for diplomatic operations and foreign assistance to those and other countries, including Pakistan and Sudan.

That is more than the entire discretionary budgets combined for the departments of Labor, Education, HHS, HUD and EPA that Democrats approved as part of the omnibus package.

Democrats essentially cut the supplemental request by 55 percent to $89.2 billion -- which includes $16.8 billion previously appropriated for mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, about one-third of the administration's foreign-aid request and the new $70 billion installment.

About half of the new funding approved in the omnibus is for increasingly strained Army operations accounts, which should provide enough breathing room to last into June.

Congress is expected to consider the remainder of the supplemental request early next year, which could easily see a replay of the spring's battle over conditions on the war money, as well as domestic funds Democrats seek to add to make up for Bush's tight budget limits.

Just as GOP leaders kept their troops in line this year and prevented defections, they are promising more of the same next year, holding out hope of big gains in the House in 2008.

"Republicans will stand ready to work in a bipartisan way to provide the rest of the funding the military needs to accomplish their mission overseas. We will also stand united, as we did all this year, against partisan gimmicks, withdrawal timelines, and tying troop funding to pork and wasteful spending," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

Most of the funding in the omnibus package, $482.3 billion, is for domestic agencies, military base construction, and the regular foreign aid budget, plus a handful of emergency items, such as $3 billion for border security and $602 million for drought relief.

The core Defense budget is the only fiscal 2008 appropriations bill to be signed into law separately, which at $459.3 billion is almost equal to the entire package of funding for the rest of the government.

In the end, with so many Republicans unwilling to buck Bush, Democrats had to shave $17.5 billion off of their original spending bills.

Democrats were able to stave off cuts in many programs that Bush had proposed, such as the National Institutes of Health, grants to local agencies serving the poor, elderly and disabled and low-income housing vouchers.

In other areas, programs were not as lucky.

Despite a major push on state and local law enforcement assistance that restored about $1.2 billion of Bush's proposed cuts, those grant programs at the Justice Department are still cut about $180 million below last year.

Clean water state revolving grants are cut by $395 million below last year, about 36 percent, almost all the way down to Bush's budget.