GovernmentExecutive.com

House GOP leaders want to end the lame-duck session by around Dec. 15, telling House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., in a meeting this morning they would allow about a month before pulling up the stakes on the fiscal 2007 budget process.

"They don't want the members sitting around here doing nothing," Lewis said. After passing a continuing resolution Wednesday that will keep agencies running through Dec. 8, "we'll come back around the time of the [White House] Christmas party, I guess," Lewis said. Another CR will be needed that week, and any spending bills unfinished by Dec. 15-16 probably will be funded by a longer CR extending into next year.

"I do expect to see some successful conference reports come forward, and from there we'll have to scratch our heads as to how we end the year," Lewis added.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., hosted a meeting Tuesday with Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and the 12 subcommittee chairmen in which he made it plain he also would try to move as many bills as possible.

One emerging option would be to pass up to three more bills, with each becoming the vehicle for two others. The fiscal 2007 Military Construction bill could be completed Tuesday or Wednesday, aides said. But time is running out.

"Obviously, people are going to leave as we get closer to Christmas," said Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., whose bill was one of two completed before the elections. "And plus you have the structural problem of physically putting together the bills."

GOP Senate appropriators said it would be up to Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to dictate how swiftly negotiations wrap up. "If he wants to expedite things, we can do it probably, but if he doesn't, I assume it's all going to plop over into next year," Gregg said.

Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said whether lawmakers can finish this year is "up to the other side. If they're going to throw at us a whole series of political amendments that prevent [fiscal 2007 bills] from being passed, then there'll be a CR, that's all."

A Reid spokesman could not be reached by presstime, but last week in discussions with President Bush and GOP leaders, he expressed a willingness to move the remaining spending bills.

COMMENTS

• What does Ted care? He got his bridge to nowhere already. Maybe Ted could realize that the world has passed him by and go back to Alaska and do something useful other than run for Congress again. The people of Alaska love him and we never will get him out of Congress because he keeps giving our money to the people in Alaska by getting drilling in wildlife areas that provide Alaska residents with a paid annual dividend from oil revenues - in Texas the same type of royalties are used to support the U or Texas. These are outstanding examples of why we need term limits on all elected positions in government. Taxpayer Posted November 16, 2006 7:40 AM
• This is totally unacceptable. Perhaps if the funding for the White House Christmas party and the House and Senate travel budget were to be put on hold so they couldn't get back home for Christmas until a budget is approved ... maybe, just maybe, we could get a budget approved in a timely manner. Why is it that everyone else in government is held accountable for doing their job in a timely manner, except Congress? When a contractor doesn't perform on time we either place sanctions or terminate. Yet time after time Congress is caught falling down on the job. Perhaps it should be mandated that the congressional fiscal budget be the last budget to be approved, then maybe, just maybe... Congress has mandated that agency heads be graded on their performances but what would our statesman's report card look like. When I was a kid I was restricted to my room until I could bring up my grades. There was no Continuing Resolution, only a resolution. Congress: do what it takes to get the job done...now! Mike Belovsky Posted November 15, 2006 8:27 AM