After adopting a revised rule for the FY97 supplemental appropriations bill on a 269-152 vote, the House this afternoon launched into what is expected to be a lengthy debate on the $8.4 billion spending package.
Today's action was required after 43 Republicans joined Democrats to defeat the original rule Wednesday on a 229-193 vote.
Controversial amendments remain, even after the resolution of problems over the sponsorship of the amendment to increase supplemental spending for the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program; the waiving of points of order against language on American ownership requirements for companies that supply paper for currency; and the dropping of amendments to use unspent Defense Department money to offset spending elsewhere and to set a deadline for U.S. troops to leave Bosnia.
The amendment expected to generate the most heated debate -- and which has drawn a presidential veto threat -- is a proposal by Rep. George Gekas, R-Pa., to automatically continue FY97 spending at 100 percent of appropriated levels into FY98 if regular appropriations bills are not enacted by the start of the new fiscal year.
The White House insists any automatic CR language reflect the FY98 discretionary spending levels officials say were set in the recent balanced budget agreement. Gekas' amendment mirrors language already in the Senate supplemental bill. White House officials and Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, have been unable to work out a compromise.
Another problem could be an amendment by Rep. Mark Neumann, R-Wis., to reshuffle spending and offsets in the bill. Neumann has said the supplemental would increase the budget deficit when measured in spending outlays, despite assurances from House Appropriations Chairman Livingston that the supplemental is paid for in budget authority.
Neumann's amendment would strike $2.4 billion in advance FY98 Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, rescind $3.6 billion in undefined FY97 budget authority and restore $3.8 billion in rescissions in HUD's low-income housing reserve.
The amendment is designed in part to plug the hole that will be left when House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Shuster raises a point of order against using $1.6 billion in contract authority from transportation trust funds to offset spending in the bill.
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