Hill budget negotiators push ahead on two tracks

Congressional discussions on the federal budget are underway this week to mark progress on two separate but related tracks as House-Senate negotiators begin talks on conferencing the fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill while the Senate prepares to take a debt limit increase to the floor--possibly Thursday.

Also, the House Appropriations Committee is set to mark up its first fiscal 2003 spending bill this week. The Military Construction appropriations bill is scheduled for subcommittee markup Wednesday afternoon.

On the supplemental, staff members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees are expected to begin initial negotiations Tuesday. But a formal meeting of lawmakers will not take place until the House names its conferees, a development expected later this week. By most accounts, it could be several days before any agreement is reached on the supplemental, which had to overcome a number of obstacles in the House and the Senate before it could be passed.

The biggest difference between the two versions is the price tag. The $31.6 billion Senate bill is nearly $3 billion above the $28.8 billion House version and the Senate version contains various provisions the White House has said are unacceptable.

One such provision would force the administration to accept all the non-defense emergency appropriations in the bill or receive none of the funds at all. Another would direct the White House to release $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund, which conservatives suspect of participating in coerced overseas abortions.

The House bill also contains language to raise the government's debt ceiling, but corresponding language was not included to the Senate version of the supplemental. Sources said it would be difficult to attach a debt limit increase in the conference as a result.

Instead, the Senate is looking to move its own debt limit increase to the floor this week.

Moves undertaken Monday by Senate Majority Leader Daschle could put the debt ceiling debate on the Senate floor this week.

Daschle Monday filed for cloture on the motion to proceed to the debt limit bill. The Senate votes today on whether to cut off debate on so-called hate crimes legislation, in a vote aides predict will be close.

If the Senate were to fail to invoke cloture on hate crimes, and then vote to proceed to the debt limit bill, the hate crimes bill would be forced back onto the Senate calendar--a move that would set it back by requiring new procedures to bring it up again.

The debt bill, which is expected to increase the debt limit by some $450 billion, may also become a vehicle for an agreement on a fiscal 2003 budget.

Talks last week produced a tentative agreement to set a statutory cap for 2003 of $768 billion and instituting various budget enforcement mechanisms.

But that deal was prevented from being attached to the supplemental by Republicans who were upset over the expense of the supplemental; so Senate Budget Chairman Conrad said the debt limit legislation may be the best vehicle to address a 2003 spending cap.

However, if the two proposals are combined, it could pose difficulties for the House GOP leadership since conservatives in neither party are excited about taking a vote on a debt limit increase while GOP conservatives in particular would oppose the $768 billion spending cap pushed by the Senate.

The White House and House Republicans prefer a spending total of about $749 billion, while increasing defense funds by $10 billion, if needed.

Also a possibility to be attached to the debt limit bill in the Senate is a deficit reduction proposal being drafted by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

Geoff Earle contributed to this report.