Full House panel will start on spending bills next week

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to hold on Tuesday its first full committee markup of the year, when it is likely to consider the fiscal 2011 Transportation-HUD and the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bills, according to aides.

The anticipated markup will come after House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., this week said he hoped to hold the panel's first full committee markup next week.

At the markup, the committee is expected to consider its 302(b) allocations, which set the funding cap on all 12 appropriations bills.

The Transportation-HUD bill was approved this month by the subcommittee and would provide $67.4 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2011 -- $500 million less than the fiscal 2010 discretionary level and $1.3 billion below what the president requested.

The measure includes $41.1 billion for the highway construction; $8.3 billion for transit projects; $3.5 billion for the airport improvement program; and $1.56 billion for Amtrak.

The Military Construction-VA bill was approved by the subcommittee Wednesday and would provide a total of $191.7 billion, including $77.3 billion in discretionary spending. That is about the same as the administration's request and $745 million less than fiscal year 2010, largely due to the fact that this is the final year of 2005 Base Realignment And Closure bill.

The discretionary figure also includes $1.3 billion in emergency appropriations for overseas contingency operations, while mandatory funding for veterans' benefits comes to $63.8 billion. In addition, the bill continues last year's advance appropriations for three VA medical accounts by including $50.6 billion for fiscal 2012.

House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who introduced a version of the war supplemental this week without the domestic add-ons favored by Democrats, may seek to attach that measure to one of the bills at the full committee markup.

The markup comes after the Senate Appropriations Committee held its first full committee markup Thursday, approving its 302(b) allocations as well as the fiscal 2011 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Agriculture appropriations bills.

After the markup, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, announced the full Senate panel would meet Thursday to consider the fiscal 2011 Commerce-Justice-Science, State and Foreign Operations, Transportation-HUD, and possibly the Energy-Water appropriations bills.