Agencies await word on budgets as spending bills inch along

Congress remains stuck in low gear in the fiscal 2002 appropriations process, even as most federal agencies now are in their second month under a continuing resolution.

The current CR runs until Nov. 16--and the administration and House appropriators continue to battle this week over the release of money from the $40 billion terrorism supplemental.

Meanwhile, the Senate will enter its second week of debate on the fiscal 2002 Labor-HHS bill and faces a cloture vote Tuesday afternoon on an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to allow public-safety workers to unionize.

Next up for the Senate is the District of Columbia spending bill--although it, too, remains embattled, held up by language sought by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to cap attorneys' fees in a lawsuit over the district's special education program.

Meanwhile, Senate Finance Committee leaders continue a standoff over competing proposals for economic stimulus measures, with partisan skirmishes calling into question a planned Tuesday markup session. And House GOP leaders struggle in a vacuum of support to plot a course for presidential trade negotiating authority, as the White House steps up its drive and labor and environmental groups claim the upper hand.

To date, Congress has cleared just five fiscal 2002 appropriations conference reports--Military Construction, Interior, Energy and Water, Legislative Branch and Treasury-Postal.

But at presstime last week, no conferences had been scheduled for this week, although the VA-HUD conference--postponed twice last week--should be rescheduled for this week. Also awaiting conference committee action are the Agriculture, Commerce- Justice-State, Foreign Operations and Transportation spending bills.

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to mark up the second $20 billion of the emergency supplemental Tuesday and attach it the fiscal 2002 Defense bill as a separate title.

But that could slip until later in the week, since the committee is demanding a detailed plan from the administration outlining its allocation of the remaining portion of its share of supplemental funds.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels promised last week that he would try to get that information to Congress by today, so that the markup can proceed and the Defense bill go to the House floor.

The $317 billion Defense bill is the last fiscal 2002 spending bill the House must pass.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is waiting for the House to act before it marks up its Defense bill or the supplemental.