Negotiators agree on plan to fund agencies through mid-December

House and Senate negotiators Tuesday agreed on a $32.2 billion fiscal 2010 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill that includes a continuing resolution to fund programs for which spending bills have not been approved at fiscal 2009 levels through Dec. 18.

The conference report is $4.7 billion more than the fiscal 2009 bill and would provide $10.3 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, $6.7 billion for Native American and Alaska Native programs, $3.5 billion for efforts to prevent and fight wildfires at the Forest Service and the Interior Department, and $2.7 billion for national parks.

One issue that threatened to delay the bill was whether the Senate would agree to a House provision to make permanent a requirement that a prevailing wage be paid on wastewater and drinking water projects built under the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs.

A compromise was reached by limiting the Davis-Bacon provision to just fiscal 2010. Democrats typically support the union-friendly Davis-Bacon prevailing wage, while Republicans tend to oppose it because they believe it merely serves to increase construction costs.

Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the compromise was the only way to pass the bill in the Senate.

"If we accepted the House provision ... we do not believe we would have the votes to pass this bill in the Senate," said Feinstein, who added that she agreed because "if it were for one year, it would be accepted on the Republican side."

Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., reluctantly agreed.

"I think it is completely wrong for the Appropriations Committee to even add one year," Alexander said, especially "when the authorizing committees are actively considering the whole subject."

But "I agreed to support the bill if it's one year and allow the appropriate authorizing committees to review it ... on a more permanent basis and we can argue it out there," Alexander said.

Another issue was settled after the Senate agreed to accept a House provision to exempt manure management systems for one year from having to report their greenhouse gas emissions under a proposed EPA rule.

House Republicans were not happy about the funding increase over the fiscal 2009 bill.

"At a time when our country is facing a $1.4 trillion deficit this year alone, providing a massive 17 percent increase in these Interior and environment programs is unacceptable," said House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis. "We simply cannot solve all of the nation's challenges -- and we put ourselves in greater financial peril -- by continuing to throw billions out the door with little result."

Lewis was also concerned about the CR, which includes two housing provisions, including one that would allow public housing agencies to use funding from the $410 billion fiscal 2009 omnibus package to prevent the termination of low-income housing assistance.

The other provision would maintain loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration, government-sponsored enterprises and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage single mortgage loans at $729,750 through the end of fiscal 2010.

The CR includes a provision that allows the Small Business Administration to use additional budget authority to prevent the termination of loan guarantees to small businesses during the period of the CR.

"A CR should not be the automatic catch-all for controversial and costly provisions simply because it's an expedient way to get things done," Lewis said.

Lewis also contends that setting the CR to expire Dec. 18 "lifts the pressure off" Congress to finish the remaining bills individually "and that portends a huge omnibus."

The CR, enacted just before fiscal 2009 ended Sept. 30, expires Saturday.

To date, Congress has sent only four of the 12 annual spending bills to the president for his signature. The Interior-Environment bill will be the fifth.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said Tuesday he hopes to try to pass all the bills separately, but conceded there may not be enough time to do so.

"We're going to try for every one," he said. It's "not going to be easy, but if you start setting a goal at this moment of saying, 'These three are going to be in the omnibus,' you never get anywhere."

Inouye's comments came after meeting with leaders from both chambers to discuss the path forward on the fiscal 2010 Defense Appropriations bill and other spending measures still pending. Inouye said he did not know whether legislation to increase the national debt limit would be attached to the Defense measure.

Megan Scully contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story mischaracterized the source of funding to prevent the termination of low income housing assistance. That money would come from the $410 billion fiscal 2009 omnibus package.