President signs fiscal 2005 omnibus spending bill

President Bush on Wednesday signed the $388 billion omnibus spending bill, which includes funding for agencies in nine of the 13 spending bills for fiscal 2005.

The measure, H.R. 4818, appropriates funds for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.

In addition, it also provides funds for such agencies and offices as the National Science Foundation; Environmental Protection Agency; Executive Office of the President; and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The bill provides for a 3.5 percent average pay increase for federal employees in 2005. Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, called on President Bush Tuesday to quickly issue the executive order necessary to put the raise into effect and determine how it will be divided between base and locality pay increases.

The portion of the fiscal 2005 omnibus spending bill that funds the departments of Veterans' Affairs and Housing and Urban Development includes information technology provisions as part of NASA's budget.

The agency would receive $7.7 billion for science, aeronautics and exploration, above the $7.6 billion proposed by the House but below the Senate's $7.9 billion.

Under the bill, the agency would get $8.4 billion for exploration capabilities, compared with the $7.4 billion in the House bill and the Senate's $9 billion.

In the conference report, the appropriators said they "do not agree with the termination of the commercial programs within the Innovative Technology Transfer Partnerships program as proposed in the budget submission, and have therefore provided an increase of $30 million to this appropriation for the express purpose of continuing the commercial programs" at NASA.

The legislation also includes $6 million for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.