House appropriations leader vows quick work on bills

Taking over at a critical point for the House's Republican majority, newly installed House Appropriations Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, said Wednesday he intends to work both with conservative Republicans and Democrats-and the White House-to draft the 13 annual appropriations bills and pass them on time this year.

Young faces a daunting obstacle course: a six-vote GOP margin in the House; restive conservatives who want appropriations bills both finished on time and written to reflect conservative principles; an expected fiscal 1999 emergency supplemental of around $3 billion; and statutory spending caps for fiscal 2000 that allow for less spending than in 1999.

As a senior member of the committee, Young saw firsthand former Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston's ongoing battles with aggressive Republicans who insisted Livingston pass conservative spending bills-and slammed him when he worked with Democrats to write bills he considered more likely to pass.

In an interview just days before the Clinton administration's annual budget is sent to Capitol Hill, Young told CongressDaily and National Journal that he plans to "have an early exchange with the president and the director of [OMB]" about the 2000 budget, rather than wait until September-and face the unenviable choice of passing another budget-busting omnibus spending bill or closing down the government.

"I don't want to see either one happen. I would prefer to get through the appropriations for fiscal year 2000 without any continuing resolutions," Young said.

Young acknowledged that "most of my work here has been done in secret" as chairman of the National Security Appropriations Subcommittee, but emphasized his track record as a consensus builder, noting that as subcommittee chairman his bills saw "very few changes in subcommittee, very few changes in full committee and very few changes on the House floor. ... And I worked at it constantly, going over issue by issue and, when there were problems, I worked them out between the interested parties, and I plan to do the same [as chairman of the full committee]."

Young said he expects "to work very well" with Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., despite their philosophical differences, because "we both love and respect the institution of the House of Representatives, and we both understand the importance of the Appropriations Committee."

As for the conservatives who gave Livingston such fits, Young said the bottom line is that appropriations bills have to get 218 votes to pass, but pledged "to meet the responsibilities of the federal government and to fund programs that the federal government should be managing." Young added that he does not "think I will have any problem getting along with either side."