Appropriators bracing for a bruising September
September will be "appropriations month," and the massive $138 billion fiscal 2004 Labor-HHS spending bill is expected to be the first out of the gate when the Senate reconvenes Sept. 2, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Friday.
The wide-ranging measure has been known to attract hundreds of amendments and take weeks of floor time. "It's going to take some strong, strong leadership, because it can be a complex, contentious piece of legislation," Frist said. But Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is "ready to go" with the measure, Frist added.
Democrats are expected to try to boost education funding under the bill by $6 billion to the administration-backed level in the No Child Left Behind law, although tight budget caps will force Republicans to clamp down. A fight over Labor Department overtime compensation rules is also expected, among other battles. Specter said he would try to convince Democrats during the recess to limit the time for considering Labor-HHS amendments.
The Senate has completed only four of its 13 must-pass 2004 appropriations bills, including the Defense, Military Construction, Homeland Security and the Legislative Branch funding measures. Fiscal discipline has held so far, despite Democratic efforts to increase spending and exceed limits set by the budget resolution, said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Santorum produced a "Democrat Spendometer" at a news briefing today, arguing that Democrats have tried to add $500 billion in new spending initiatives this year, including $16.8 billion in amendments to the $29 billion Homeland Security appropriations bill. Other appropriations bills Senate leaders hope to move to shortly after Labor-HHS include Interior, Agriculture and Energy and Water, GOP aides said.
Meanwhile, the House in September will take up its last remaining 2004 spending bills-the District of Columbia and Transportation-Treasury appropriations measures. GOP leaders must also resolve lingering differences over fiscal 2003 emergency supplemental spending.
The Senate late Thursday cleared a $986.3 million measure for the Federal Emergency Management Agency over Democratic objections, but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, wants to hold the administration to its word in supporting its own $1.9 billion supplemental request for FEMA, wildfire suppression and NASA. Stevens relinquished his objections to the slimmed-down supplemental after receiving assurances that funds would be available in August to fight fires raging in the West and Alaska.
Stevens and Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., are also seeking to include $100 million for AmeriCorps, an addition opposed by the administration and House Republicans. The Senate passed a $2 billion supplemental as part of its Legislative Branch spending bill. That measure is still in conference with the House Appropriations Committee's own $2 billion measure, which contains other add-ons.