Appropriations bills in trouble

Last week was a rough one for House appropriators. On the floor, members ripped large chunks of flesh from the fiscal 1999 Treasury-Postal appropriations measure, with Democrats protesting over the rule on the bill. Also on the floor, Republicans added to the VA-HUD bill a housing authorization measure they have not been able to get through conference. Finally, in committee, the Appropriations Committee added a variety of legislative riders to the Labor-HHS bill, an effort that aides and members conceded may make the bill impossible to pass on the House floor in its current form.

But House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., is not worried. "I think [the process] is working fine," he said this week. Nonetheless, members and aides made clear that several of the funding bills could be headed for vetoes. As in past years, much of the focus remains on the House, where the most strident political battles are playing out. The problem bills include:

• Labor-HHS. Already funded at levels the Clinton administration made clear are unacceptable, the committee last week added a provision requiring teens seeking family planning services to have their parents notified before they receive those services. Moderate Republicans and Democrats have been willing to stall or kill legislation over that provision. The bill includes a variety of other provisions, ranging from restrictions on federal financing for Viagra to new warnings on cigarette packages. Many members also object to elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program and the summer jobs program. On the Senate side, the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee may not even mark up its bill until September because Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has just returned to Congress after surgery.
• Commerce-Justice-State. No solution is in sight for the dispute between the Clinton administration and House Republicans over whether sampling should be used for the 2000 Census, a key House Republican Appropriations Committee aide said. This issue will require intervention by congressional leaders and President Clinton, rather than appropriators, the aide said.
• VA-HUD. Legislative riders dealing with global warming, the housing reauthorization bill and the lack of funding for the Americorps national service program may make this bill veto bait.
• Foreign Operations. The same old problems with funds for international family planning groups remain, and funding for the International Monetary Fund is already giving many members indigestion. House Republicans have shot themselves in the foot by failing to work with Democrats on the bills, said House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis. "They just want to pass the bills even if they're empty shells," he said.

A moderate House Democratic veteran of the budget wars agreed. "There is no endgame," said Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas. "How can there be an endgame when you don't have a budget?" Stenholm said Republicans have made the mistake of not trying to build a consensus with conservative Democrats. "When you don't reach out ... the end result is predictable," he said.

How Republican leaders solve those problems and what role the administration will play is totally unclear. "Every year, we have last-minute drill sessions," Livingston said, adding that he is not alarmed by the prospect of last-minute deal cutting. Many of the problems were anticipated, Livingston said, adding that last year's budget deal provided spending increases that eased passage of the funding bills. "They put some juice in the operation," he said. "They greased the skids. We knew it would be much tighter this year."

However, a Senate GOP leadership aide sees something far more sinister. "This administration is going to veto" a continuing resolution, the aide said, predicting that the administration wants to force Congress to the brink of a shutdown to force spending increases. "There's a scare side to the plan," the aide said, adding the administration is going to try to convince members that people will believe that "the Republicans are going to shut down the government."

The House Appropriations Committee aide agreed, saying the administration thinks it can "game us by pushing the decisions to the end." He added that the administration has not yet joined the discussion and has been content to simply send veto threats. "If the president has a money fix, let him come forward now," the aide said.