The fragile truce between conservative House Republicans and GOP appropriators fell apart Wednesday, as conservatives accused the appropriators of attempting to hide more than $4 billion in three funding bills by designating the money as emergency spending.
Referring to the effort by appropriators as "smoke and mirrors and cheating," Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., chairman of the Conservative Action Team, said if the spending remains designated as an emergency, it would blow whatever relationship the CATs had developed with the appropriators "wide open." Conservatives threatened to bog down appropriations bills with a myriad of amendments.
Appropriators defended the decision to designate the spending as an emergency, saying the bulk of it would go to helping solve the year 2000 computer problem. House Appropriations Chairman Livingston said the so-called Y2K problem is a "once in a lifetime emergency situation."
The CATs and the appropriators have attempted to work more closely this year, after several lengthy battles last year. However, the CATs were indignant after discovering what the appropriators are doing.
In the fiscal 1998 Defense appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee designated $1.6 billion in funding for solving the Y2K problem as an emergency, meaning the money would not be subject to the discretionary spending caps.
The appropriators did the same with $2.25 billion in the Treasury-Postal spending bill. An effort by Rep. Mark Neumann, R- Wis., to delete the emergency designation failed during the full committee markup of the measure late Wednesday.
In addition, the panel designated more than $30 million in the Agriculture appropriations bill as emergency spending. That money would help offset the cost of an amendment exempting wheat exports from sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan.
"Conservatives are in quite a lather today," an aide to a member of the CATs said Wednesday, adding that appropriators and GOP leaders "have just created their own problems in these appropriations bills."
Declared Neumann, "The whole Congress ought to be upset." He added that he fears once some spending is designated as emergency funding and is not subject to spending caps, "the floodgates are open and the spending caps are history."
McIntosh said conservatives will use procedural maneuvers to register their protests on the funding, including the possibility of offering more than 100 amendments to the bills.
Neumann had threatened to offer more than 40 amendments to the Treasury-Postal measure, but decided not to after the markup took several hours anyway.
Neumann said the year 2000 problem is "not exactly an unexpected circumstance," adding that "there's no way we should be going down this road."
However, Treasury-Postal Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., said, "If anything qualifies as an emergency, it seems to me that this [does]."
Livingston said conservatives will have the right to offer amendments on the floor making specific cuts to help offset the cost of the Y2K problem.
"If these guys want to make specific cuts ... they can do that," Livingston said. He also criticized the Budget Committee for not setting aside funds to deal with the Y2K problem.
The Appropriations Committee defeated, 32-14, Neumann's amendment to delete the emergency designation. Following the vote, Neumann said many members are just learning of the controversy and will fight to delete the emergency spending.
"I think you've got a big problem when you get outside this committee," he said.
McIntosh said he is beginning to think that the House should not pass appropriations bills before agreeing to a budget resolution conference agreement that includes a tax cut. Passing appropriations bills would take away some of the pressure to pass a budget resolution, McIntosh said.
Meanwhile, conservatives in the House and Senate also said they will oppose any budget resolution that does not include $101 billion in tax cuts. "We expect not a penny less," Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., told reporters.
And referring to a deal conservative senators believe they had with Senate Majority Leader Lott to adopt the $101 billion in tax cuts in the House budget, Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., said, "An agreement is an agreement and it must be upheld."
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