House lawmakers threaten to hold up Interior spending bill

House conservatives are threatening to hold up the fiscal 2003 Interior spending bill on the floor again today in an attempt to drive home their concerns that "plussed up" appropriations bills now being moved will lead to a budget-busting September, once it becomes clear that other spending bills do not have enough dollars to pass.

And the chaos on the floor is leading to a minor rift in the House leadership, as Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, appear sensitive to the conservatives' cause, while Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is trying to remain "above the fray" in the hope that the situation will play itself out without much damage, sources said.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he and other members of the conservative Republican Study Committee will continue to offer amendments Wednesday to cut spending in the Interior appropriations bill, even as attempts to do that Tuesday night failed by large margins. The end goal, Flake said, is to drive home the point that the Interior spending measure, as well as other bills scheduled for this week, such as the fiscal 2003 Treasury-Postal and Agriculture spending bills, are several hundred million dollars above President Bush's request, while bills scheduled to move in September, such as the fiscal 2003 VA-HUD, Commerce-Justice-State and Labor-HHS appropriations measures, are either at or below the request.

Flake accused appropriators of frontloading the earlier bills in an attempt to force lawmakers to accept more spending later in the year in order to get bills passed. "We're the reasonable ones here," Flake said. "We want to work within the budget we passed."

Flake said conservatives are discussing various options, including recissions to force appropriators to redistribute money to the more difficult bills. But he also said conservatives might be assuaged if appropriators move the Labor-HHS spending bill and other bills earlier, rather than later, just to see if they can pass at their current allocations. "We don't believe you can pass those bills," he said. "They can't even get out of committee."

Asked Wednesday what he thought about the conservatives' complaint, DeLay replied, "No comment." And leadership sources said it was still unclear what direction leadership would take. "I think we would want to make sure all the wings of the party are flapping in the same direction," one source said. But while Armey and DeLay may be siding with conservatives, Hastert wants to let the situation work itself out without having to subject the appropriations process to more delays.

A Republican source said Hastert wants to make sure "all the messages are sent," but that he hopes individual lawmakers will pressure conservatives to back down. "The leadership would rather have some bills pass than no bills pass" before the recess, another GOP aide said.

Some sources groused that conservatives are making their stand too late-that they should have raised concerns about the so-called 302(b) allocations when they were released in June. An Appropriations Committee GOP aide, meanwhile, acknowledged that while the later bills will be difficult to move, the administration has said it supports the 302(b) allocations as written.