Fiscal 2000 budget bargaining continues this week

Bargaining will continue this week on Capitol Hill over the remaining fiscal 2000 appropriations bills, now that Labor-HHS, the final fiscal 2000 spending bill, has been completed, especially since GOP leaders have said they want to adjourn for the year Nov. 10, a week from Wednesday.

Last Thursday, the House cleared the combined District of Columbia/Labor-HHS conference report, which also included the 1 percent across-the-board cut in total discretionary spending, on a 218-211 vote. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the package at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew and other administration officials are expected to put in long hours on Capitol Hill negotiating with appropriators on the five unsigned spending measures, Labor-HHS, District of Columbia, Commerce-Justice-State, Foreign Operations and Interior.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Friday most outstanding issues can be addressed by administration officials and appropriators. "When and if they need to kick things up to us [in the leadership], we'll deal with it," he added.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., was similarly optimistic, saying, "These differences can be resolved in one four-hour meeting."

One candidate for an early finish is the $14.5 billion Interior appropriations conference report, which has been snagged over the White House's demand for more money and opposition to environmental policy riders. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, Thursday said negotiators have "been having some pretty good conversations this week. I think we even can get a bill. We're going to have to spend more money, and we'll have to give them some of what they want. But if everybody deals in good faith, if we are able to do it right, I think we can get our bill done separately." Regula added the administration still has not provided offsets to pay for the extra spending it wants. Armey said Friday the plan is to get the Interior and combined District of Columbia/Labor-HHS conference reports to the president as soon as the Senate adopts the latter next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Donna Shalala Friday vowed that the administration would press during budget talks to eliminate delayed funding in the Labor-HHS bill for the National Institutes of Health. "The $7 billion in delayed funding that's called for in this budget would, in my judgment, cripple the research community," Shalala charged. "It will be on the top of [the] 'out list' for negotiations," she vowed.