House panel to take up supplemental spending bill next week

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said Wednesday he will seek to mark up the fiscal 2003 supplemental spending bill next week and that the Defense appropriations bill will follow soon after, possibly within two weeks after the supplemental is finished.

Young, who spoke with CongressDaily at the White House following a meeting that included President Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels, said the supplemental is "basically ready to be presented to the committee." But he indicated he did not discuss with the president whether Bush would accept a supplemental greater than the $27.1 billion the president requested.

Appropriators and leadership have been discussing adding about $3 billion to Bush's proposal, and administration officials have objected to increasing the bill's price tag. But Young indicated today's talk was not a negotiating session.

"It was a very favorable, very positive meeting--there were no problems," he said. "There were no conclusions of any kind--no conclusions were called for."

But there was discussion today of offsets that will be included in the measure, Young said, adding that the bill would include offsets suggested by both committee members and the administration.

Young said much of the meeting, which was requested by the president, was devoted to other matters--such as how to move the 2003 appropriations bills through the House, scheduling of the bills and various requests by the White House and lawmakers for spending priorities.

Asked earlier today whether Bush would accept added spending on the supplemental, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer did not rule it out, but he cautioned Congress against excessive spending.

"It's too soon to say exactly what's going to come out of the Congress," Fleischer said of the supplemental. "But the president thinks it's crucial for Congress to hold the line on spending."