Congress remains far behind on spending bills

As it begins the second week of October, Congress is further behind than it ever has been on its appropriations workload: A week from today, the continuing resolution that is keeping the entire federal government running will expire, but Congress has yet to send a single fiscal 2002 appropriations bill to the President.

And while the Appropriations chairmen and ranking members last week agreed to an overall FY02 discretionary spending level of $686 billion, and have set final spending levels for each of the 13 annual appropriations bills, they still have a tremendous amount of work ahead of them to meet their ambitious timetable of completing--by the end of the month--all 13 bills and a supplemental spending measure related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

This will necessitate passage next week of a second continuing resolution, designed to keep the federal government operating through Oct. 31.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has grown increasingly frustrated of late at the slow pace.

"We should not let a day go by without making substantial progress," he said last week after appropriators finalized spending levels for the 13 bills.

Byrd has called for Congress to move as many as seven FY02 conference reports by this Friday: Interior; Commerce-Justice- State; Energy and Water; Legislative Branch; Military Construction; Treasury-Postal; and VA-HUD.

A more realistic tally, based on next week's schedule, appears to be three or four.

To date, the House has passed 11 FY02 bills--all but its versions of the Labor-HHS and Defense spending measures.

The Senate has cleared eight, with the Labor-HHS, Defense, District of Columbia, Foreign Operations and Agriculture bills yet to move. Of those, the Foreign Operations and Agriculture measures have been reported out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, while the other three have yet to be marked up.

But Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., blocked votes on the Foreign Operations and Agriculture bills last week, as he insisted on an agreement from Democrats to act on more of the President's nominations.

The Foreign Operations bill could move through the Senate relatively quickly once floor time is scheduled. However, the version reported out of committee is under a veto threat from the president because it would block his reinstatement of the so- called Mexico City policy on U.S.-funded international family planning groups.

House and Senate sources expect the Senate to drop that language in conference in favor of the House bill, which the President supports.

The Agriculture bill could get hung up on the Senate floor if Northeastern senators try to attach language to it reauthorizing the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact.

But with Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis.--among the compact's most ardent foes--managing the bill on the floor and scheduled to chair the conference this year, compact supporters may decide to train their fire elsewhere.

An attempt to add language on reimportation of FDA-approved drugs also could slow the Agriculture bill's progress.

But a spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a leading proponent of drug reimportation, said that while it is "still a possibility" Dorgan would offer an amendment, Dorgan is "really giving some consideration to the argument that this isn't the time to have a lot of big fights."

Drug importation language is already in the House-passed Agriculture bill.

A flurry of activity has been scheduled for this week, although progress on the order of what Byrd has urged appears unlikely. A conference committee on the Interior bill has been set for Wednesday, with House floor action on a conference report anticipated Thursday or Friday.

Completion of the Treasury-Postal and Legislative Branch conference reports may also occur this week, although no formal conference meetings on either bill had been scheduled as of late last week.

Another conference report expected to move quickly is the one for the Military Construction bill.

The Treasury-Postal conference report could run into problems, however, because of language in the House version of the bill to block funding for the Treasury Department to enforce the ban on travel to Cuba.

The language is adamantly opposed by members in both chambers opposed to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and "strongly opposed" by the president, according to the Office of Management and Budget statement of administration policy on the bill.

The only other bill awaiting conference that could face serious obstacles is the Transportation spending measure. The President has threatened a veto over provisions in versions passed by both the House and Senate to restrict the movement of Mexican trucks into the United States.

But with the heightened attention to border security in general since the Sept. 11 attacks, GOP sources are hopeful a compromise now is possible that meets Democrats' insistence on guaranteeing the safe operation of Mexican carriers.

Although there are many program-level discrepancies between the House and Senate versions of several of the FY02 bills-- particularly the Commerce-Justice-State, Energy and Water and VA- HUD measures--none is expected to pose insurmountable difficulties in conference.

But because the Defense and Labor-HHS bills, the two largest of the 13 annual measures, are still in the drafting stages, sources could not predict what problems they could run into in conference--aside from the obvious time constraints.

The administration must also send a formal request for the second $20 billion of the $40 billion emergency supplemental Congress passed last month to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Of the first $20 billion, the administration has released roughly $7 billion to date. It can release another $3 billion with relatively few strings attached, but to access the next $10 billion, it must send Congress a detailed spending plan.

The second $20 billion must go through the regular legislative process, and is expected to move as a separated title in the last FY02 bill of the year, which is widely anticipated to be the Defense bill.

The request for the second $20 billion could reach Capitol Hill as early as this week, although the administration has been bogged down on that by competing demands for the money well in excess of the amount available. But until a request is transmitted, the process cannot move forward.

Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee plans to mark up the Labor-HHS bill, which sailed through a subcommittee markup last week without any of the usual partisan wrangling over social policy issues. A floor vote on the bill is expected as early as Wednesday.

The Defense bill also could move through House subcommittee and full committee markup this week.

The Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee is slated to mark up its FY02 bill Thursday morning.