Prospects for passage of remaining spending bills in lame-duck session grow dim

Republican leaders appear inclined to pass a long-term continuing resolution after giving up on completing the remaining fiscal 2007 appropriations bills.

The long-term CR was the most plausible scenario given the dwindling time left in the lame-duck session and the fact that the Senate adjourned without sending any more spending bills to conference. Congress will reconvene the week of Dec. 4.

After a meeting Friday between House and Senate GOP leaders and the Appropriations Committee chairmen, House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., called it "an absolute disaster and a catastrophe" in contrast to last year when all of the spending bills were completed individually.

"Not such a great ending," Lewis said. "I wouldn't want to point fingers at the other body, but they just don't seem to want to go regular order."

Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has been waiting for floor action on the spending bills since before the August recess. For a variety of reasons, Senate leaders failed to bring up more than two -- the fiscal 2007 Defense and Homeland Security bills -- which became the only two out of 11 to be signed into law. This week, Senate GOP conservatives blocked action on several spending bills, arguing that they could become vehicles for an earmark-laden omnibus or "minibus."

"I'm very disappointed in the Senate," Lewis said. "If there's a tinkle of success in all this, it's that there's no omnibus."

The only decision remaining appears to be how long to extend the CR. Conservatives favor a year-long extension, while in 2002 after the midterm elections, a CR was extended through Jan. 11 to allow the new Congress to reconvene; an omnibus was finally pushed through in February 2003.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, would not comment. "There are a few more discussions we need to have," he said.