Leaders direct appropriators to begin crafting omnibus bill

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., have directed appropriators to begin constructing the fiscal 2004 omnibus as early as next Wednesday, giving Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, until then to move remaining individual fiscal 2004 spending bills through that chamber.

After a "Big Four" meeting today of Hastert, Frist, Stevens and House Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., Hastert confirmed what had become obvious given the Nov. 21 adjournment target.

"After [Nov. 11] or [Nov. 12] they'll start putting a package together," Hastert said. Stevens will continue to try to get through fiscal 2004 spending bills until next week's deadline, including expected passage of the Agriculture spending bill today after GOP leaders failed to invoke cloture on the nomination of William Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Stevens is aiming to wrap up the VA-HUD and Commerce-Justice-State bills next week as well. But objections from both parties to provisions in those bills-along with general Democratic frustration over conference negotiations and Frist's plan to devote 30 hours next week to the judicial nomination process-could complicate that plan.

Democrats blocked consideration late Wednesday of the fiscal 2004 Military Construction appropriations conference report, although a Thursday passage remained a possibility. That would be only the fifth out of 13 fiscal 2004 spending bills approved by both chambers this year.

The Senate also is expected to approve a new continuing resolution today to fund the remaining federal agencies whose spending bills have not been enacted, through Nov. 21. Frist said he and Hastert agreed that Congress would adjourn Nov. 21 when the continuing resolution expires and that there would be an omnibus appropriations bill.

"The size of the omnibus depends on how much the Democrats let us get done," Frist said, noting the Senate has yet to complete work on the fiscal 2004 Agriculture, VA-HUD, and Commerce-Justice-State bills.

Hastert said no decision had been made yet on how to offset the estimated $3 billion gap between House and Senate spending bills and the White House's top-line figure of $786 billion. GOP leaders favor across-the-board cuts to pay for increases in spending on veterans' health care, improved election systems and voting equipment, and special education.

"We believe the fairest way is an across-the-board cut," Hastert said. But Stevens and Young are balking for now at that strategy, although it is unclear how they would pay for the increases and have said they can live with across-the-board cuts. Stevens suggested some federal agencies have "contingency funds" that could be raided to pay for some of the increases, but did not elaborate. A $289 million Senate addition to combat global AIDS could probably be offset by other reductions in the Foreign Operations spending measure such as to the Millennium Challenge Account, aides said.