House and Senate leaders are planning a flurry of legislative activity during the final days before the August recess, tentatively slated to begin at the end of next week.
In the House, appropriations will dominate the floor schedule. There will be no spending bills on the floor Friday due to Appropriations Committee markups of the fiscal 2000 VA-HUD and Commerce-Justice-State bills. Both of those bills are scheduled for floor action next week.
Debate on the Foreign Operations appropriations bill, which was to begin Thursday night, is expected to carry over into early next week.
GOP Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma predicted this week that the House would stay in session through next Saturday. But Conference Secretary Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, said it was too early to tell how long the House would stay in session.
The Senate is scheduled to take up Agriculture appropriations next week. Democrats secured the ability to offer an emergency farm aid amendment to the bill after they reached an accommodation with Republicans on managed care legislation. The $10 billion amendment will be protected from the restoration of Rule 16, which bars legislating on spending bills, under a deal reached between Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. The Senate also is scheduled to take up the Interior appropriations, which ran into problems this week related to Rule 16.