Senate panel OKs spending allocations, amid uncommon partisanship

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved its 302(b) allocations for the 12 fiscal 2011 appropriations bills, after agreeing to cap fiscal 2011 discretionary spending at $1.114 trillion.

The committee voted on the allocations before it approved the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Agriculture appropriations bills, the first to be marked up this cycle by the full Senate Appropriations Committee. The bills were approved en bloc, 17-12, with no Republicans voting for the bills.

The discretionary spending figure is less than the $1.121 trillion in discretionary level set by the House earlier this month and less than the $1.128 trillion requested by President Obama in his fiscal 2011 budget proposal.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, initially sought $1.120 trillion in discretionary spending, but revised his figure to $1.114 trillion to win the support of Republicans who wanted $1.108 trillion. Inouye took the $6 billion difference between $1.120 trillion and $1.114 trillion from the Defense Appropriations bill, which he later said would not "hurt the Defense Department."

However, Republicans rejected Inouye's proposed compromise and voted against the 302(b) allocations, which set the top line funding levels for the 12 annual appropriations bills.

During the markup, Republicans were planning to offer an amendment to the Inouye 302(b) measure that would have capped discretionary spending at $1.108 trillion. But Inouye quickly moved to vote on his compromise, which ended consideration of the matter. Inouye's move came despite a request for a vote on the Republican proposal by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is a member of the panel but does not often attend committee markups.

Republican appropriators had written to Inouye Tuesday urging Democrats to adopt their proposed top line for discretionary spending.

At the markup, McConnell argued that without a budget resolution, which has not been passed by the Senate, it would be up to the Appropriations Committee to take a stand to reduce discretionary spending.

Interior-Environment Appropriations Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she took the GOP letter to mean that ranking members of the Appropriations subcommittees would not vote for the bills they helped write, a break with committee tradition.

"Today what I see as a breaking apart of the cohesiveness of this committee," Feinstein said. She added that she has "chosen to do earmarks on the Interior bill at just about 50-50" between Republicans and Democrats. She asked, "What is the incentive to carry out a 50-50 earmark [strategy]? There is none."

McConnell argued it is fair for Republicans to pursue a cut in discretionary spending in the Appropriations Committee, without a Senate debate over a budget resolution, "which is frequently a pretty partisan exercise."

"I think we generally have a different view in the two parties about how much we ought to be spending," McConnell said, adding, "This need not fracture the bipartisan nature of this committee. We are just simply, respectfully, saying we ought to have less spending and that is something we ought to vote on like we normally do out on the floor of the Senate."

Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also a member of the panel, said it was contradictory for Republicans to request more than $1.3 billion in earmarks in the three spending bills, but call for a smaller discretionary funding level. "I don't think this is consistent," Durbin said.