Only 1 of 12 ‘08 Federal budget giant spending bills has been made into law

Lufkin Daily News ^ | December 03, 2007 | Bob Deans

[flattorney]

WASHINGTON — The president can't do it, nor the Supreme Court. Only the Congress has the power to levy taxes and spend public money, perhaps the most basic task of governance. Legislators, however, return this week from their Thanksgiving recess having put into law just one out of the 12 giant spending bills that make up the 2008 federal budget. Congress breaks again, this time for the year, in just two more weeks.

"That's not really a lot of time to squeeze in nearly a year's worth of unfinished business," President Bush said Monday. "The end of 2007 is approaching fast, and the new Congress has little to show for it." It was February, after all, when Bush sent up his proposals for federal spending for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. "It is certainly not a good thing to go this far into the year without completing these bills," said James Horney, director of federal fiscal policy with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank. "But it is certainly not unprecedented." A year ago, the outgoing Republican-led Congress threw up its hands and adjourned without completing the spending bills, leaving it for a new Congress to finish the job.

The government isn't in danger of shutting down: Congress has passed a series of so-called continuing resolutions - Band Aid budgeting - to keep the lights on month to month. Still, decisions haven't been made on how to spend about half a trillion dollars of the $2.9 trillion 2008 budget. Part of the problem: Democrats hold a razor thin majority in the Senate and little better than that in the House. It's hard to pass legislation without bipartisan effort. Bush, moreover, has been willing to use the veto - as he did Nov. 13 on the $151 billion labor, health and education appropriations bill passed by both houses. Three days later, the House fell 10 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override the president's veto. This year's budget scrap is also being played out against the background of a presidential race that's already kicked into high gear - 11 months before most voters will go to the polls - and the stormy partisanship surrounding the war in Iraq.

With 11 spending bills still pending - counting the labor, health and education bill Bush kicked back last month - Congress has its work cut out for it in the weeks before the year-end holiday break. The betting is that most of the work will be put off until early next year, when Congress might try to combine post-holiday leftovers in an omnibus bill. "There is no simple way to force an agreement," said Horney. "It's important to get the bills done. But it's also, in the process, important to provide the funding at the level you think is appropriate."

To date, Congress has passed, and the president has signed into law, only one - the $460 billion defense bill - of the 12 spending bills needed to authorize the 2008 budget. Here are the bills awaiting action, listed by function and amount currently under consideration, along with their status:

* Agriculture and Rural Development: $18.7 billion. Passed by the House; similar version passed by committee in Senate; awaiting action by full Senate. It must then go before a joint conference committee to resolve differences between the two versions. The conference report would then go before both houses for a vote. If it passes both houses, it goes to the president's desk.

* Commerce, Justice and Science: $54 billion. Passed by both houses; awaiting conference action.

Energy & Water Development: $32.3 billion. Passed by the House; similar version passed by committee in Senate; awaiting action by full Senate.

* Financial Services and General Government: $21.8 billion. Passed by the House; similar version passed by committee in Senate; awaiting action by full Senate.

* Homeland Security: $36 billion. Passed by both houses; awaiting conference action.

* Interior and Environment: $27.2 billion. Passed by the House; similar version passed by committee in Senate; awaiting action by full Senate.

* Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: $150.8 billion. Vetoed by Bush; failed House override. Awaiting House and Senate revisions.

* Legislative Branch: $4.1 billion. Passed by the House; similar version passed by committee in Senate; awaiting action by full Senate.

* Military Construction and Veterans Affairs: $64.7 billion. Passed in both houses; conference report accepted by House but rejected on a procedural matter by Senate; awaiting revisions in conference committee and votes in both houses on final version.

* State, Foreign Operations: $34.2 billion. Passed in both houses; awaiting conference action.

* Transportation, Housing and Urban Development: $51 billion. Passed by both houses. Conference report approved by House; awaiting action in the Senate.
# # # [This Bill includes a provision to strip funding of the NAFTA Mexican trucks FMCSA Pilot Program. The reconciled THUD Appropriations Bill was approved by the House on 11.14.07 by a 270-147 vote. If passed by the Senate, President Bush has threatened he would veto the Bill. I don't know where this article got the $51 billion amount. The Bill is $105.6 billion based on the 11.08.07 House Conference Summary. – FlAttorney]

Together with the defense spending bill, the above bills total roughly $958 billion of so-called discretionary spending, which accounts for about one third of federal outlays. The rest — nearly $2 trillion worth — is non-discretionary spending, including so-called entitlements such as Social Security and health care payments. In addition, Congress is considering a request Bush made for $191 billion in supplementary funding to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other global anti-terrorism operations.

Source: Senate Appropriations - Committee; Library of Congress