Lawmakers scrambling to lock down omnibus deal

Lawmakers were working furiously Tuesday to reach agreement on an fiscal 2005 omnibus spending package and the ground rules on legislation to increase the statutory debt limit by $800 billion.

GOP leaders were considering a weekend session, if necessary, to complete work on spending bills.

"I've suggested to the speaker and the majority leader that there be no breaks, no weekends, until we get this done," House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said Tuesday.

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders were hashing out a time agreement to vote on the debt limit measure. Senate debate was to begin Tuesday, with a vote possible Wednesday before Democrats leave town for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. The House is expected to act Wednesday or Thursday, or whenever the Senate completes action on the debt limit. Friday is the working deadline to avoid government default.

The omnibus bill appears unlikely to contain the fiscal 2005 Energy and Water spending measure, although incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled a willingness Tuesday to compromise on funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Unless that and other issues are resolved, the measure would have to be funded under a long-term continuing resolution. "I'd rather not do a CR," Reid told reporters Tuesday. But Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is fighting House-proposed funding levels for nuclear programs, and has shown little inclination to make a deal. Reid said he called Domenici to discuss unresolved issues, and that he discussed the matter with House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio.

Negotiations on the remaining eight appropriations bills are going better, as appropriators are expected to work out an agreement with Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health. Specter was seeking up to $300 million more for NIH. "I think we put the whole issue to bed," Specter said, although he declined to elaborate. The White House is still angling for more money for Millennium Challenge Accounts, but sources said appropriators were still almost $1 billion short of the White House request for $2.5 billion.

GOP leaders are moving to strike provisions unacceptable to the White House to avoid last-minute veto threats. Language blocking new Labor Department overtime compensation regulations and the White House's government-wide outsourcing initiative has been discarded, according to a Senate GOP aide close to the talks. An extension of the Milk Income Loss Contract program, which provides subsidies to small dairy farmers, also has been dropped. While President Bush supports extending the program, doing so in the omnibus would violate fiscal 2005 spending caps, and Congress has time to extend it next year before its scheduled Sept. 30 expiration.

Before the fiscal 2005 Transportation-Treasury spending bill can be added to an omnibus, lawmakers must bridge disagreements over funding for Amtrak and the Postal Service. Lawmakers are trying to close a $300 million gap that will determine whether Amtrak funding will be maintained at current levels or cut next year. The Senate approved $1.2 billion for Amtrak, while the House version included $900 million. "There is no give or take right now," said a House appropriations aide. A Senate appropriations aide said the two sides were closer than $300 million.

Senate opposition continues over House language to require Amtrak to repay $100 million the Transportation Department loaned the rail service in 2002, while also requiring Amtrak budgets be approved by administration officials. The Senate aide suggested that in exchange for agreeing to the Senate funding level and removing the budget requirement, the Senate could ensure that at least a portion of the DOT loan is paid. The House aide said, "Everything is for sale at this point."

Another looming issue is the $507 million the Senate approved in emergency funding for the Postal Service's security against anthrax and other biohazards. The House opposes the emergency designation, contending that the funding should count toward the bill's spending ceiling.

The House also is opposed to $200 million in Senate regional transportation earmarks, including highway funding for Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. The biggest problem may have been resolved when the two chairmen of the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee -- Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. -- returned to Capitol Hill Tuesday from international trips. Now that both are back, aides say, they are confident these differences can be worked out in time to include the Transportation-Treasury spending as part of an omnibus package.