Dems propose clean stopgap funding measure

Democrats introduced a continuing resolution Tuesday to keep federal departments and programs operating from the time the current fiscal year ends Sunday until Nov. 16.

The 21-page bill contains few surprises, mostly continuing expiring programs -- including the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- as President Bush and congressional Democrats duke it out over a longer-term reauthorization. Customary payments to surviving spouses of deceased lawmakers are also included, in this case to the wives of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., and Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Ohio.

The CR will also continue the rate of spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan based on the $70 billion "bridge fund" in the fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations bill, plus an additional $5.2 billion for mine-resistant armored vehicles.

Expiring authority to operate the Commanders' Emergency Response Program, which allows troops on the ground flexibility to dispense cash for immediate humanitarian and reconstruction needs, is also continued, as is the expiring death gratuity for soldiers' families; authority to pay expenses incurred by coalition liaison officers; and use of funds for counterdrug and counterterrorism operations.

Supplemental war funding provided in May will not be included, except for a continuation of higher spending provided for Base Realignment and Closure accounts and worldwide embassy security upgrades.

The CR will also continue the rate of emergency border security spending provided in the fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill, with stipulations that the agency does not hire, train or equip more Border Patrol agents than it did in the final quarter of this fiscal year, and that the number of detention bed spaces cannot exceed those currently in use this month.

Other extensions of current law in the CR include authority for Veterans' Affairs Department medical care fee collections, the Food Stamp program, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Compact of Free Association amendments for the Republic of Palau.

Although slated to move separately, Democrats also included temporary extensions of Trade Adjustment Assistance and aviation excise taxes, presumably as a backstop in case they stall as free-standing measures. Transfer authority is granted to provide additional spending for the Office of the Federal Coordinator for the Alaska natural gas pipeline project authorized in 2004.

Notable omissions of expiring program extensions include the lapsing abstinence education and Transitional Medical Assistance for Medicaid recipients who lose their eligibility because of changes in their income. Also absent is a prohibition on a new rule requiring tamper-proof prescription pads, despite a last-minute lobbying push by pharmacists' groups.

Sources said those programs would have required offsets, and that separate legislation on those programs could still move. Other lapsing authorizations have a little more time yet for Congress to act -- the Internet tax moratorium and Higher Education Act do not expire until the end of October.