Rift on Katrina relief, bird flu complicates Defense spending negotiations

House Republicans remained divided Wednesday over spending on Gulf Coast aid and avian flu preparedness, complicating efforts to approve the must-pass fiscal 2006 Defense appropriations bill with funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gulf Coast lawmakers and Mississippi GOP Gov. Haley Barbour lobbied House leaders for additional billions in hurricane aid, amid conservative concerns about attaching the money to the Defense spending bill. The White House dispatched Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to try to salvage President Bush's $7.1 billion avian flu plan, which nonetheless appears certain to be whittled down.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, from hurricane-battered Mississippi, is working on a $35.5 billion hurricane recovery package, with offsets. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., met with House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., Wednesday, and Barbour this week met with Lewis as well as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is acting majority leader.

Cochran's plan is more than double the White House's $17.1 billion package, which would use existing Federal Emergency Management Agency balances. Cochran said he would seek to offset as much of his plan as possible by digging further into FEMA accounts, in which as of last week $37 billion was still available.

"We could reallocate some more," Cochran suggested.

Lewis, whose support Cochran will need, would not comment but said he was sure his counterpart would be "responsible" in negotiating the final package.

But the sheer size of Cochran's proposal has raised eyebrows in the House, and privately Lewis told members at a Republican Conference meeting Wednesday he would only support funding that is paid for out of previously appropriated funds or otherwise offset.

Conservatives are waiting to see the details, and some would like to see the Defense appropriations bill kept clean of Katrina spending in order to more quickly approve the Pentagon funds.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, noted there will be another Katrina supplemental next year in which the funding could be addressed, although he said based on Leavitt's presentation there was probably a more urgent need to get some avian flu funding out the door.

The Defense spending bill remains a likely vehicle for flu money, especially after House appropriators removed about $125 million for vaccine production from the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to offset new funding for rural health care and education.

Rural House Republicans demanded the extra money in exchange for their Labor-HHS votes, after the $142.5 billion bill was defeated last month.