Appropriators begin to flex muscles on spending

Although they have yet to take center stage this session, House appropriators have been working behind the scenes to protect their interests as they gear up for the start of the fiscal 2003 appropriations cycle.

In the last week alone, they met with Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, about discretionary spending needs, tangled with the Office of Management and Budget over the release of funds for fighting wildfires, defended their jurisdiction with respect to highway funding and the Senate-passed farm bill, and--in contrast to their Senate counterparts--met privately with Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

In a Wednesday letter to President Bush, Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Joe Skeen, R-N.M., and subcommittee ranking member Norman Dicks, D-Wash., urged him to override an OMB decision not to release $280 million in Forest Service firefighting money provided in the fiscal 2002 Interior spending bill.

They warned, "[I]f these funds are not released very soon, opportunities to get vital, on-the-ground work accomplished this year will be lost."

Also firing off a letter this week was Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, who Monday wrote to Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest, R-Texas, urging House farm bill conferees to reject Senate farm bill provisions that would provide mandatory funding for agriculture research, rural development and other non-farm programs.

Bonilla wrote, "The Senate decision to use the authorities of the CCC [Commodity Credit Corp.] to fund traditionally discretionary activities runs counter tothe stated purpose of the CCC and usurps the role of the Committee on Appropriations."

On another jurisdictional front, Young and Obey introduced legislation Thursday to restore the $4.4 billion cut in fiscal 2003 highway funding required by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century without forcing cuts in other discretionary programs.

The Young-Obey bill, which has picked up 64 cosponsors, responds to a similar bill to restore the $4.4 billion offered by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last month. That bill, which has 301 cosponsors, calls for the money to come from the highway trust fund, while appropriators' bill would raise the cap on the highway spending category in the budget.

And while Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, were rebuffed when they invited Ridge to testify before their committee, Young, Obey, and several subcommittee chairmen and ranking members sat down privately with Ridge Wednesday. Among other issues, they discussed how his office functions and interacts with other federal, state and local agencies, and how to best provide funds for homeland security across the various appropriations bills.

Young reportedly told Ridge he would not force him to testify before the committee, and Ridge--a former House member--made himself available for regular, informal meetings with appropriators. Another session is planned once the president sends Congress his fiscal 2002 supplemental spending request, which is expected around March 18.