Senate committee gears up for spending bills

As Senate appropriations leaders plotted a swift course for fiscal 2003 spending measures this week and next, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., indicated Tuesday he would like to complete markups of all 13 spending bills by the end of next week.

Subcommittees marked up their versions Tuesday of the 2003 Labor-HHS, Commerce-Justice-State, Defense and Foreign Operations bills, while the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up the Treasury-Postal bill.

Byrd said the panel would take up the Energy and Water, District of Columbia, Transportation, Agriculture and VA-HUD spending bills next week.

The Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee made short work of the first markup of the year on the largest of the domestic spending bills, approving the $136.6 billion measure by voice vote with no dissent. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is set to take up the bill Thursday afternoon.

Appropriations ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, warned, however, that the rest of the measure's journey is unlikely to be as smooth as subcommittee approval. House appropriators, he noted, are working from a discretionary spending total $9 billion lower than the Senate's, "so it will be an interesting year," reconciling spending bills between the two chambers.

The Senate Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday approved a $43.4 billion spending bill that boosts funding to fight both terrorism and corporate fraud.

The SEC was funded at $750.5 million-$283.6 million above President Bush's request. The increase includes pay boosts for existing staff and $96.6 million to increase staffing. Another $14 million of the increase is aimed at improving the agency's corporation monitoring systems in the wake of widespread business scandals that have impaired confidence in Wall Street.

Overall, the $43.4 billion measure is $2.4 billion more than was appropriated for the current fiscal year, ending September 30, and $1.67 billion above Bush's request.

The Senate Appropriations Committee fully funded President Bush's homeland security program in the 2003 Treasury-Postal bill Tuesday, but at the same time cut funding for the White House's anti-drug advertising campaign by 40 percent and took away the dollars to enforce a travel ban to Cuba. The Committee passed the bill 29-0, including 10 proxy votes.

The $35 billion bill includes $18.5 billion in discretionary spending. The bill allocates $25.3 million to the Office of Homeland Security in a separate account.