House, Senate agree to more talks on appropriations changes

House Republican leaders and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., have agreed to revisit some aspects of their sweeping committee reorganization plan, after discussing the matter with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran.

The two chairmen emerged after the meeting to report that they aimed to have a final agreement on the number and structure of the panel's subcommittees within a week, with the pending arrival of the president's fiscal 2006 budget and fiscal 2005 supplemental request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tsunami relief.

"We've got a budget coming to us very shortly. We've got a supplemental immediately. We've got to be working, and we've got to get organized," Lewis said. The budget is due Monday, with the supplemental to arrive before the end of next week.

After objections Tuesday from Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairmen, Cochran agreed to push for more discussions with the House on Lewis' reorganization plan to shave the number of subcommittees to 10.

"We're going to try to figure out what some of the other options might be. We both expressed a willingness to listen to the other and to talk about other options," Cochran said after the meeting.

The House Republican Steering Committee Wednesday afternoon nonetheless was interviewing a slate of 10 subcommittee "cardinals" proposed by Lewis, although Lewis held out the prospect that more could be added after further negotiations with Cochran.

One particularly large sticking point has been a proposal by Lewis and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, to move a hefty slice of jurisdiction out of the Defense spending bill and into an expanded military "quality of life" subcommittee that would also have control of the base construction and housing budget, as well as veterans' programs. That prospect drew opposition from Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, in part because moving personnel accounts out of the Defense bill could have a detrimental effect on the intelligence community.

Lewis, a former House Defense Appropriations chairman, appeared to be responsive to Stevens' concerns. "The senator has raised a number of questions that are very legitimate questions," Lewis said. "There's no doubt that there is some change that could go forward, but questions like making sure that we secure intelligence, for example, are very legitimate questions and we've got to be willing to talk about it."

One factor that seems to be driving further negotiations is the prospect of an undesirable year-end omnibus spending bill, a possible consequence of having different subcommittee structures that could complicate conference negotiations. The prospect of an omnibus has become much reviled, especially after the appearance last year of a last-minute provision that could allow Appropriations Committee staff access to IRS tax return processing facilities.

"We'll work out something that is an improvement in the way the Appropriations Committee operates, make it more efficient, and modernize it in terms of organizational structure of the committee to avoid the big omnibus bills that we've had in the past," Cochran said.