Senate cuts top-line spending offer; House seeks sharper knife

The Bush administration and congressional Republican leaders are pushing hard for a deal on fiscal 2005 appropriations by the end of next week, with aides reporting productive talks at a series of senior staff meetings over the weekend among Appropriations Committee, GOP leadership and Office of Management and Budget officials.

The chief sticking point remains the structure of a package of additional spending outside the top line fiscal 2005 discretionary cap of $821.9 billion. Senate appropriators added about $8 billion through a variety of accounting gimmicks.

Sources said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had agreed to whittle that total down to about $6 billion -- designated as emergency spending so as not to count against the budget cap -- before the weekend's meetings. But the White House and GOP leaders did not sign off on that idea, nor would they agree to a 2 percent across-the-board cut for other non-defense, non-homeland security spending to pay for the additions, sources said.

By contrast, last year's package of about $4.6 billion in additions was financed by a 0.59 percent across-the-board cut and about $1.8 billion in rescissions of prior-year Pentagon funds.

Aides said GOP leaders are reluctant to rescind military funds further, in part because budget hawks have criticized the move as "not a real offset." Instituting a similar-sized across-the-board cut for this year's bills would raise more than $4 billion by some estimates.

A House appropriations spokesman declined to characterize the status of the ongoing negotiations other than to say, "The Senate is at $8 [billion], and we're at zero."

The $6 billion package would fund a number of popular programs that still could see additions, although somewhat reduced. Among the programs for which appropriators say they want increased funding are veterans' health care, NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The House and Senate are about $1 billion apart on NOAA funding, which is coveted for earmarking, particularly by Senate appropriators. The Senate added $768.3 million to the White House budget request for a total of $4.14 billion. The House cut the administration request by $215.5 million, to $3.16 billion.

The White House also is seeking increases for its own priorities, including $1.25 billion more for the Millennium Challenge Account program, created by Congress at the administration's behest to provide development assistance to nations that encourage democracy.

Aides and lobbyists said there is a renewed optimism after last week's election results for deals on the most difficult spending bills, including Labor-HHS and VA-HUD -- which are in line for the lion's share of the Senate additions.

But prospects for the Energy and Water measure remain in limbo because of a lingering dispute over funding for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository, to be located in the home state of presumptive Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Appropriators have been unable to agree to spend more than $131 million in fiscal 2005 for the plan, which the administration has said would lead to a program shutdown. Funding the project under a yearlong continuing resolution would provide $577 million, short of the Bush request of $880 million.