With spending deal, appropriations bills move into high gear

With a deal in hand to set total fiscal 2002 federal discretionary spending at $686 billion, appropriators expressed optimism Tuesday that they could move quickly to complete work on 13 annual spending bills--even though none has been conferenced or sent to the President, despite the start Monday of the new fiscal year.

The continuing resolution now keeping the government funded expires Oct. 16.

In a letter to Congress Tuesday, President Bush announced his support for spending another $25 billion over the $661.3 billion set in April by the GOP-controlled Congress in consultation with the White House.

The additional funds include $18.4 billion for defense, $4 billion for education and $2.2 billion for emergency natural disaster relief. Now that an education increase has been finalized, the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee plans to mark up its FY02 bill this afternoon.

Both Congress and the White House appear to have gotten much of what they wanted in the arcane haggling over whether the President should send a formal budget request or a letter to Congress. Appropriators won Bush's endorsement of the spending increase--and therefore political cover against the charge they went on a unilateral, year-end spending spree--while the administration preserved its leverage over individual spending bills even as it endorsed the total price tag.

"This agreement does not compromise my discretion to consider the policy and program content of legislation before agreeing to sign it," Bush's letter said. "However, passage of appropriations measures within the agreed total will mean that there will be no disagreement between the Congress and my administration over aggregate funding levels."

House GOP conservatives had pushed for the President and the Republican leadership to hold fast to a spending total of $679 billion--allowing an increase only for Bush's FY02 defense amendment.

Acknowledging that battle as essentially lost, an aide to one conservative said Tuesday, "We're shifting our focus to making sure we don't go above $686 billion."

Conservatives have other objectives. They plan to fight to keep language in the House-passed Treasury-Postal bill denying abortion coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.

And they will seek to remove language in the Foreign Operations bill reported out of Senate Appropriations to block Bush's reinstatement of the so-called Mexico City policy, which restricts the activities of international family planning organizations.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., told reporters that because "much of the preliminary work has been done by our respective staffs," the deal on the overall numbers means "we should get under way and should be able to move pretty rapidly."

And ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said, "We hope to have a very expeditious handling of the bills. We hope."

A steadfast supporter of "regular order," Byrd also continued to beat back speculation about a year-end omnibus spending measure.

"There's no need to talk about bundling of bills," Byrd said. "We've got time to do separate bills. I'm not a bundler. I've been interested all along in avoiding omnibus bills. There's no reason that we have to start talking about bundling. Forget it."

Also on Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, announced that his committee would mark up legislation to raise the statutory spending cap for fiscal 2002, which the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 set at $552 billion. A committee spokeswoman said the legislation, which could be marked up as early as this week, would reflect the agreement with the White House on the $686 billion figure.

In addition, the House appointed conferees Tuesday on the Military Construction bill, bringing to six the number of bills now formally eligible to go to conference. Conferees have yet to be appointed on the Transportation and Treasury-Postal bills, even though those bills have passed both chambers.