Senate leader works to break impasse on Homeland Security bill

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has waded into a dispute between appropriators and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., to try to break an impasse over the fiscal 2005 Homeland Security spending bill that has prevented the House from appointing conferees.

Aides said Thomas approached Frist Monday to discuss his concerns over a provision the Senate added to extend Customs Service user fees to pay for $784 million in additions to the $32 billion measure. The matter has held up consideration of the bill because Thomas is threatening to lodge a "blue slip" objection to the Customs Service fee extension since it violates the constitutional requirement that all revenue measures originate in the House.

At their meeting Monday, Frist assured Thomas that the matter would be "dealt with," according to a top Senate aide. But the aide and Senate Appropriations Committee staff said no final decisions have been made about how to address the provision. Other aides speculate that Senate appropriators may have to accede to Thomas' demand and find some other way to pay for the spending increases, in part because Thomas is insisting that custom fees be preserved to pay for offsets to the foreign sales corporation/extraterritorial income tax bill. The Senate amendments addressed spending increases such as $200 million for five air bases along the Canadian border and $128 million for rail security.

Aside from the Customs Service fee provision, another procedural matter has intervened. The House has been asked to send back to the Senate the version of the bill that chamber approved last week because an administrative mistake omitted language of an amendment incorporated on the floor.

The amendment by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., which passed on a partisan 49-47 vote, would preclude the Homeland Security Department from contracting out immigration service officer positions to the private sector. A similar amendment is in the House-passed version; both have drawn White House veto threats.

Also included in the Senate bill was an amendment from Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., that was aimed at gutting the Leahy amendment. Also approved by a 49-47 vote, Thomas' amendment would allow the agency to put immigration services positions up for competitive bidding after submitting a report to Congress on the advantages of such a move. But the Leahy language was accidentally left out, causing the paperwork problem. GOP and Democratic aides said they did not think the error was politically motivated but rather the result of a confusing back-and-forth on the floor involving a series of first- and second-degree amendments.

While appropriators hash out procedural issues, they are also awaiting transmittal of a third emergency request for aid to cover hurricane damages. The request, which is expected as early as this week, will be added to $3.1 billion for Hurricanes Charley and Frances already submitted to Congress. GOP leaders also must contend with a $3 billion drought aid amendment added by a bipartisan group of farm-state senators, and possible additions for Florida agricultural industries. Those changes were not requested by the administration