Obey answers GOP skeptics, plans markup next week

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said Wednesday that he expects to hold his first full committee markup of the year next week.

"We are hoping to," Obey said, but he declined to say which bills would be considered.

Possibilities include the Agriculture, the Transportation-HUD, the Legislative Branch, and the Military Construction-VA appropriations bills, which already have been approved by their respective subcommittees.

The committee could also take up the State and Foreign Operations, the Energy and Water, and the Labor-HHS appropriations bills, which are scheduled to be marked up by subcommittees on Thursday.

When the full committee meets, members are also expected to consider so-called 302(b) allocations, which set the top-line funding levels for all 12 annual spending bills.

Obey's comments came amid increasing concern among Republican appropriators that House Democrats were likely to skip full committee markups to protect their vulnerable members from having to cast difficult or embarrassing votes that could be used against them in midterm political campaigns.

To that end, Republicans have been offering amendments during subcommittee markups instead of waiting for the full committee sessions, their traditional battleground.

"We've been doing this largely because we have had no indication from any body that we might have full committee markups," said House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.

As for word of the markup next week, Lewis said: "I might attend, if there is such a thing."

At today's Energy and Water subcommittee markup, Republicans are likely to offer a series of amendments, including a cost-conscious proposal to hold funding at fiscal 2010 levels.

They may also offer an amendment that would temporarily suspend funding for the nuclear waste fund, which relies on consumers of nuclear power and would pay for a nuclear waste disposal facility.

Republicans want to suspend the charge to consumers until the administration puts forward a plan for treatment of nuclear waste they can support. Republicans contend the move would save consumers millions of dollars.

Both President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have sought to kill a plan to put a nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

At today's Labor-HHS subcommittee markup, Republicans will be trying to reopen the healthcare reform debate by offering amendments to address what they see as overreaching by the federal government.

They are likely to target a provision in the new healthcare law requiring Americans to have health insurance, and language in the law they contend allows federally subsidized abortions.

In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hold its first full committee markup on Thursday. The panel plans to consider the Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill, Homeland Security Appropriations bill and the Agriculture Appropriations bill, as well as the Senate's 302(b) allocations.