By Larry Jones
October 8, 2007

Lagging behind on passing the 12 regular appropriations bills that fund all federal agencies and programs in the new fiscal year (FY 2008) which began on October 1, Congress passed a so called continuing resolution that will keep federal agencies and programs operating at their fiscal 2007 funding levels through November 16. The House approved the measure, H.J. Res. 52, by a vote of 404 – 14 on September 26 and the Senate approved it by a vote of 94 – 1 on September 27.

Only a few of the regular appropriations bills have cleared both houses. While the House has passed all of its annual spending bills, the Senate has only passed four. It is unlikely Congress will be able to complete work on all regular spending bills before members adjourn for the Thanksgivings Day recess. A stumbling block in the approval process is the division between Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House over funding levels.

Democratic leaders in Congress would like to add $23 billion on top of the $933 billion the President has requested for the 12 spending bills. Most of the additional funds would be used to increase funding for domestic programs such as law enforcement, transportation and Homeland security. As a result, the President has threatened to veto seven of the bills because their funding levels exceed the amount in the President’s budget. Democratic leaders argue that the amount they want to spend on domestic programs is far less than the $190 billion the President wants to spend on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

Democratic leaders are urging the President to sit down with them to work out a compromise where there are differences on funding levels so that final spending bills can be approved. Short of that, Congressional leaders are saying they may be forced to put all 12 of the bills in a so called omnibus spending bill that could provide funding for all federal agencies and programs through September 30, 2008. By lumping everything together, some believe it would be difficult for the President to veto such a measure because it contains so much of what he wants. But the President has vowed he will not be forced to sign it.