Senate gearing up for appropriations bills

As the Senate gingerly prepares to dip its toes in the murky waters of the fiscal 2006 appropriations process, Capitol Hill observers will be watching to gauge Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's commitment to moving spending bills in a timely fashion and through "regular order" -- or one at a time, letting the Senate debate and work its will.

In his third year running the often unruly Senate, Frist is seen by some as not having a great affinity for the appropriations process, regarding it as a necessary evil. Now, with new players in the game, Frist appears ready to let regular order take hold, at least for now.

House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who probably will have pushed all 11 House bills through that chamber by the end of this week, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., are itching for a successful first year. "With new chairmen both in the Senate and the House, we have a real opportunity to greatly improve the appropriations process, which is the reason I want to get two appropriations done next week before we leave," Frist said.

Prodded by feisty Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the last two years, Frist has tried regular order. In 2003, an off year for elections, Frist and Stevens were able to move 12 of 13 spending bills before running out of time late in the session. But faced with steering the Senate and his party in the run-up to the 2004 elections, Frist largely chose to shelve those messy, drawn-out spending bills in favor of measures more appealing to the conservative base -- such as a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. Frist also brought up legislation important to the party's other critical wing -- the business community -- such as a measure to overhaul class-action lawsuits, which finally cleared Congress this year.

With time in the session dwindling last year -- and facing a late start because of budget negotiations -- Frist pulled the plug after the Senate approved only six individual appropriations bills, packaging the remaining seven into an omnibus measure without allowing full Senate debate.

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he sympathized with Frist's decisions but ultimately disagreed.

"You know, the election was coming up, not wanting to get the Democrats to unload their outbox of political votes on every appropriations bill ... I think that was a mistake. The only thing we have to do around here is pass appropriations bills," Lott said. "Only way you get that done, you have to stay on 'em. You have to focus on 'em and stay on 'em, and that's hard. Because the leader is going to be pressured just like it always happens. There are people that are going to be saying 'Oh my goodness, we've gotta do the asbestos bill; we've gotta take up the highway conference; we've gotta do CAFTA,' and next thing you know if you don't watch it it's a bowl of mud because July is filled up."

A Senate GOP leadership aide stressed that Frist's commitment to regular order is "rock-solid." But staff have also pointed out that GOP leaders are not prepared to completely focus on appropriations next month and are likely to "dual track" consideration of spending bills with other legislation.

Lott disagreed. "Once you got into June ... it was appropriations every week, all week. In other words, I rarely interrupted that with other issues. You can't do that. It takes a full summer of work to get through the appropriations process," Lott said. "Mondays and Fridays. I used to make them vote on Fridays a lot."