Senate panel to vote on three spending bills this week

The Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on three fiscal 2009 spending bills this week, including Agriculture, Military Construction, and State and Foreign Operations appropriations legislation.

The panel will meet Thursday at 2 p.m., according to an updated schedule released Monday.

The schedule the committee had put out Friday included only a hearing that will be convened by Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, slated for Wednesday morning, on fiscal 2009 budget needs of the National Institutes of Health.

The markup announcement comes after the committee Thursday approved the Transportation-HUD, Energy and Water, and Financial Services appropriations bills. The full committee has approved six of the 12 appropriations bills, including the Commerce-Justice-Science, Homeland Security and Labor-HHS measures passed last month.

At the markup Thursday, Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., reiterated his intention to finish work on all the appropriations bills by the end of the month and scheduled for July 24 full committee markups of the Interior, Defense, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills.