Lawmakers eye another extension of stopgap funding measure

House Republican leaders are preparing to pass a continuing resolution extending government operations through Feb. 15, aides said, one week after President Bush submits his budget for the next fiscal year.

Despite Senate GOP conservatives' move to shut down further action on this year's appropriations, there is a chance that a roughly $136 billion fiscal 2007 Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs spending bill might be attached to the CR. Senate conservatives are warming to that idea, aides said.

"Conservatives offered at the outset to allow it to pass as long as it was clean," a Senate GOP aide said. "This has all along been about a pork-laden omnibus, not about the [Military Quality of Life] appropriations bill. I think conservatives would be fine with" attaching the military and veterans bill to a CR.

Appropriators have doubts whether there is time to put the military and veterans' benefits bill together. Little has been done on the bill because GOP leaders two weeks ago said they were going to punt on all spending bills.

If GOP appropriators can approve it before Congress adjourns, they can claim conservatives capitulated on their pledge to block new spending. If not, conservatives can argue they were willing to support the bill, but appropriators failed to follow through.

Support is almost unanimous for the underlying bill, which funds housing, health care and other benefits for the military, veterans and their families. Earmarks in the bill were generally either requested by the Bush administration or were previously authorized.

After unanimous Senate passage Nov. 14 of the bill, conservative GOP Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma blocked it from going to conference. They argued appropriators would use it as a vehicle to add the nine remaining fiscal 2007 spending bills and thousands of new earmarks.

A spokeswoman for Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he and other appropriators have consistently argued for passing all the spending bills individually, most recently in a Sept. 25 letter to GOP leaders. "Just what is it that makes people think Chairman Cochran is anxious for an omnibus?" she said.

Appropriators say they provided "ironclad" assurances early on that no other bills or earmarks would be attached to the military and veterans bill. Sources recounted talks between Senate GOP leadership staff and conservative aides, who were asked if they would accept a clean, free-standing bill with a long-term CR at lower funding levels for the other outstanding appropriations bills attached.

Conservatives said they could accept that if they were given prior access to the negotiated text of the conference report, which appropriators rejected. "They bristled at the possibility of another senator having a veto over the bill," another Senate GOP aide said.

The House is planning to pass the CR toward the end of next week and go home for the year. That would leave the bill in the Senate to take it or leave it, and few are willing to risk a government shutdown.

GOP leaders and the White House are considering interim adjustments to soften the CR's impact on agencies that would be funded at lower stopgap funding levels. But appropriators argue such "anomalies" are no substitute for the certainty provided by enactment of agencies' annual spending bills.