The fiscal 2001 appropriations process may be under way in the House and Senate Appropriations committees, but it has already hit a few significant roadblocks on the floors of both chambers.
After a partisan and at times acrimonious two-day procedural fight between Senate Democrats and Republicans, the Senate Thursday afternoon held a series of votes on the $8.6 billion fiscal 2001 Military Construction appropriations bill that should get the first of this year's spending bills through the Senate.
But the prospects for Senate action on future fiscal 2001 appropriations measures look dim. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., reiterated that he will insist the Senate only take up spending bills that have first passed the House in protest of Republican opposition to Democratic priorities on education, minimum wage, gun control and confirmation of judges.
The only fiscal 2001 bill to pass the House so far is Military Construction, although the House will vote Friday on the fiscal 2001 Transportation spending bill, and possibly the Agriculture appropriations bill as well. But the $14.4 billion Agriculture spending bill still has a few snarls House leaders must unravel before it can go to the floor.