Veterans' health care funding stalls House vote on budget plan

Members of the House GOP whip team said Wednesday they remain as many as 20 to 30 votes short of what they need to pass the fiscal 2005 budget resolution Thursday.

Some GOP lawmakers are holding out for more spending for veterans' healthcare programs and a date certain for floor action on a separate budget enforcement bill.

"We're not there yet," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. "They've got enough [votes] to kill it."

Another GOP deputy whip, Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, stressed that the holdouts were mostly "undecided" rather than "no" votes, which bodes well for the leadership as it cranks up the whip operation. House Budget Chairman Nussle was optimistic about prospects for final passage and said he hoped to have a conference agreement ready for the floor before the House begins its spring recess at the end of next week.

Nussle and other Republican lawmakers said the veterans' healthcare issue was the more intractable problem. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., another whip team member, said GOP leaders were trying to persuade Veterans Affairs Chairman Christopher Smith, R-N.J., that an amendment added on the Senate floor to boost veterans' spending would have little practical effect.

"There's some confusion over what the Senate number is," Kirk said.

The Senate amendment would raise veterans' healthcare spending by $1.2 billion. That brought Senate spending $2.5 billion above the president's request. House GOP lawmakers said the Senate amendment would have little practical effect since it is offset by reductions in a catchall account. Since the amendment does not specify where the offsets would come from and does not increase the overall discretionary spending cap, appropriators will have little room to find the additional funds. Nonetheless, veterans groups such as the Paralyzed Veterans of America are urging opposition to the House resolution, which includes a $1.2 billion increase over the president's request.

On the budget enforcement issue, a group of moderates and conservatives are still demanding that leaders guarantee a date when the House will vote on budget enforcement legislation. Supporters want a date between consideration of the budget conference report and when the first fiscal 2005 appropriations bill reaches the floor this summer. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, said, "Whether we get this passed depends on assurances of a date certain."

Meanwhile, House Democrats unveiled their budget alternatives today, including the chief alternative by Budget ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C., and the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate-to-conservative Democrats. Each would apply pay/go rules to tax cut and spending legislation that increase the deficit, and boost spending for domestic programs.

The Spratt alternative would provide about $836 billion in fiscal 2005 discretionary spending, including about $5 billion more for homeland security than the president's request. The Blue Dog plan would trim foreign aid spending by about $5 billion to pay for increased domestic spending but remain within the Bush request for $823 billion in fiscal 2005 discretionary spending.