White House presses Congress to wrap up supplemental work

The White House on Tuesday urged House and Senate negotiators to wrap up deliberations on an $81 billion-plus fiscal 2005 emergency supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan before the Senate leaves for a one-week recess next week.

In a letter to conferees -- whom the House plans to name Tuesday to join already approved Senate negotiators -- OMB Director Josh Bolten stressed the need for swift action to avoid a budget crunch, particularly in Army accounts.

Bolten also stressed White House support for border security and drivers' license standards provisions in the House bill, but said the administration has "some concerns" about the House measure. Congressional aides identified those as stricter immigrant asylum standards, which have provoked the ire of church groups. The House and Bush administration also back the inclusion of Senate-passed provisions exempting returning seasonal workers from U.S. visa caps, according to Bolten's letter and House GOP aides.

The White House also takes issue with items containing "funding that is unrelated to the War on Terror and relief and reconstruction for the Indian Ocean tsunami or is not an emergency requirement."

In the Senate, appropriators added several items to the underlying bill and on the floor that have emerged as sticking points in conference. However, House appropriators are likely to agree to some additions -- and some House priorities as well -- before all is said and done.

A smattering of add-ons inserted on the Senate floor with little debate include releasing $95 million in 2002 farm bill spending for Nevada agricultural and water projects. A provision inserted by Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania to allow the Energy Department to use part of a previous $100 million appropriation to back a loan guarantee for a Gilberton, Pa., clean coal project also has drawn flak, because CBO has scored the provision as costing $100 million in outlays, according to House appropriators.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also earmarked, within previously appropriated funds, $4 million for the Fire Sciences Academy in Elko, Nev. Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Domenici shifted $4 million in existing funds to clean up lands transferred from the Energy Department to Los Alamos Country, N.M., and $10 million in compensation for federal land acquisition in conjunction with the 1940s Manhattan Project.