Congress remains tangled in appropriations bills

Although the Senate untangled itself enough to reach a deal to take up the fiscal 2001 legislative branch spending bill Wednesday, House GOP leaders remain unable to bring up either the 2001 Agriculture or legislative branch spending bills-both of which leaders still want the House to act on before Congress recesses Friday for Memorial Day.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., have hammered out a unanimous consent agreement under which the Senate will consider nominations today, followed by the legislative branch spending bill Wednesday.

In protest of what Daschle considers Lott's lack of respect for the minority's rights, Daschle had vowed to block consideration of any FY2001 spending bills not already passed by the House.

Although Daschle agreed to let Lott call up the legislative branch spending bill-even though the House has not passed its version-a spokeswoman said Daschle still would object to taking up the Agriculture appropriations bill.

The spokeswoman pointed out that the House still has not passed its Agriculture spending bill, and that unlike the legislative branch measure, the Senate's Agriculture bill contains several "egregious riders" that Democrats oppose. These include language to block the federal government from pursuing a lawsuit against tobacco companies and to extend a biotechnology process patent held by Columbia University.

In the House, GOP leaders are meeting with Appropriations Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., and others on the Agriculture appropriations bill. But they still must figure out how to offset, or where else to put, $115 million in emergency FY2000 aid for apple and potato farmers added in committee, and what to do with language by Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., to lift the ban on exporting food and medicine to Cuba and four other so-called rogue states.

On the legislative branch bill, House GOP leaders plan to add about $100 million to make up for funding shortfalls, such as for the Capitol Police, but still have not determined where the money will come from.

Nevertheless, Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, Tuesday told reporters the House will vote on both bills Thursday-even as Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said "it's still too early to tell" whether the leadership can move the Agriculture spending bill to the floor this week. "A lot of people still have a lot of talking to do," said DeLay, who is one of the House's toughest critics of the Castro regime in Cuba.

Also Tuesday, House VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman James Walsh, R-N.Y., announced that his panel, which meets this afternoon to mark up its FY2001 spending bill, will fully fund renewals of Section 8 low-income housing vouchers at $13.3 billion.

But Walsh said his bill will provide funding for only 10,000 new vouchers, compared to the 120,000 new vouchers requested by the Clinton administration, because HUD failed to spend $1.4 billion appropriated last year for the voucher program.