Acknowledging that they cannot finish all 13 appropriations bills by the end of the fiscal year, the House today voted 421-0 to approve a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government operating through Oct. 9.
A pessimistic House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., said he anticipates Congress having to pass more CRs because deadlocks remain on many of the spending bills. "I expect that we will need to have a number of additional short-term continuing resolutions," he said.
Obey and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., traded blame for who is responsible for having only sent one funding bill to President Clinton so far.
Livingston said the Clinton administration has pushed for funding totaling about $9 billion above the spending caps, adding that while the administration claims it has offsets for the spending, it has failed to send those to Congress. Livingston said Congress also will be confronted with requests for emergency spending on programs ranging from the year 2000 computer problem to defense.
However, Obey said Republicans remain in a "mindset of confrontation on at least half of the appropriations bills." He said problems remain on the Labor-HHS, District of Columbia, Foreign Operations, VA-HUD, Interior, Transportation and Agriculture funding bills.
"I am disturbed that none of these bills seem to be moving," Obey said, contending that some Republicans may be attempting to force a large number of bills into an omnibus funding measure in an effort to force Clinton to accept language and funding he dislikes. "I hope that is not true because that is how we get into trouble around here," Obey said.
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