House, Senate finally near deal on huge spending bill

House and Senate negotiators are aiming for a deal on a fiscal 2004 omnibus spending bill encompassing more than half of the federal government's agencies and programs as early as Monday, with an eye toward filing the measure Tuesday.

At $780 billion-plus, the bill encompasses $330 billion in discretionary funds in addition to mandatory spending on Medicare and Social Security, highways and mass transit and farm subsidies.

The Senate is looking at ways procedurally to approve the measure before the House can act on it. Procedurally, the House is supposed to act first, but the Senate is aiming to adjourn for the year before the Thanksgiving holiday.

The House has scheduled a pro forma session Tuesday, which is the earliest the omnibus conference report could be officially filed. Aides spent the weekend hammering out agreements on remaining sticking points and checking the bill for last-minute red flags, while evaluating late member requests for inclusion in the bill.

As of Sunday, the White House was still raising objections to language that would block a Federal Communications Commission decision to lift the broadcast ownership cap from 35 percent to 45 percent of nationwide reach, and had issued a veto threat. The House and Senate each voted to block the ownership cap changes over objections of GOP leaders.

On Sunday, Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten met with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to discuss the matter, as well as other remaining issues such as rules for public-private job competitions in agencies and offsets for more than $4 billion in additions that would exceed the discretionary budget cap of $786 billion for all 13 appropriations bills.

Bolten would not comment on the talks. But aides said aside from the FCC matter, OMB remained concerned over the scope of exemptions lawmakers are considering to the administration's competitive sourcing initiative aimed at allowing private sector competition for some federal jobs.

Also, OMB still was voicing concerns over appropriators' plans to offset some additions by rescinding unspent funds from previous spending measures, instead of favoring across-the-board cuts to pay for the entire package, and which programs might be exempted from them. That included additional funds for Pell Grants to undergraduate students sought by the administration.

Appropriators are considering a combination of rescissions and across-the-board cuts, although specific percentages were still being worked out.