Senate Allocates Spending

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved its FY98 subcommittee spending allocations, with the Defense, Energy and Water and Labor-HHS panels receiving large increases and the Military Construction, Transportation and VA-HUD subcommittees losing money compared with FY97.

The allocations total almost $517 billion, the same as the House allocations, which were approved Wednesday.

However, the Senate set different priorities than the House, with subcommittees receiving a different mix of funding than the House allocations. A report approved by the Senate panel Thursday states that the committee's allocations would be increased if several programs are included in funding bills. Those include funding for Section 8 housing assistance, selected land acquisitions, mass transit and highways and past payments for international peacekeeping.

Following are the Senate allocations, including crime trust fund money, as compared to the House allocations and FY97 appropriations -- not including supplemental spending -- as adjusted by the CBO.

The Agriculture Subcommittee received $13.7 billion, $98 million more than the House and $223 million more than FY97; Commerce-Justice-State received $30.9 billion, $357 million less than the House, but $1.4 billion more than the current fiscal year; Defense received $246.7 billion, $1.5 billion less than the House and $3 billion more than this year; District of Columbia received $805 million, the same as the House and $86 million more than FY97; Energy and Water received $21.2 billion, $1.2 billion more than the House and $1.1 billion more than in FY97; Foreign Operations received $13.1 billion, $700 million more than the House and $923 million more than the current fiscal year.

In addition, the Interior Subcommittee received $13 billion, about the same as the House and $517 million more than in FY97; Labor-HHS received $79.34 billion, $246 million less than the House and almost $4 billion more than in FY97; Legislative Branch received $2.35 billion, $103 million more than the House and $177 million more than FY97; Military Construction received almost $9.2 billion, about the same as the House, but $801 million less than this year; Transportation received $12.06 billion, $438 million less than the House and $454 million less than the current fiscal year; Treasury-Postal received $12.6 billion, $134 million more than the House and $744 million more than FY97 and VA-HUD received $60.2 billion, $757 million less than the House and $1.63 billion less than this year.