Movement on the $9.1 billion fiscal 2000 supplemental bill, marked up by the House Appropriations Committee last week, appears stalled for the moment by conflicting pressure from GOP leaders on one hand and frustrated fiscal conservatives on the other. The bill would return a pay day for military personnel and some federal civilians to fiscal 2000 that was moved from September to October in this year's budget agreement.
The package is a top priority for House Speaker Denny Hastert, R-Ill., because it includes nearly $1.7 billion in fiscal 2000 for South American anti-drug efforts-a signature issue for Hastert even before he became speaker. Hastert aides are pushing for quick action on the measure. But at his media briefing Tuesday, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, did not include the supplemental in his list of bills slated for the floor this week. When quizzed by reporters, he said the leadership needs to brief members at Wednesday's House GOP Conference, as well as have more leadership discussions, before they can take it to the floor.
On the Senate side, neither Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., nor Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., wants to move a supplemental, preferring to put the spending in the regular fiscal 2001 bills. House leaders also are meeting stiff resistance from the Conservative Action Team, which is pushing for more offsets to pay for the $9.1 billion spending package.
House budget hawks are upset not only because the supplemental is nearly double the administration's $5.2 billion request, but also because it contains just $115 million in offsets for the non-emergency appropriations; the remaining $8.9 billion would come out of the fiscal 2000 on-budget surplus, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates at $23 billion.
In addition to money for controversial anti-drug efforts in Colombia and the Andean region, peacekeeping in Kosovo and other defense needs, and natural disaster relief, the supplemental also would use $6.9 billion in fiscal 2000 outlays to reverse pay date shifts for military personnel and federal civilians and other payment delays made in the fiscal 2000 omnibus appropriations measure enacted last fall.
At the direction of House leaders, House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., is to meet this evening with conservatives to discuss the supplemental.
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