CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Feb. 23, 2009 – 2:26 p.m.
Democrats Turn to Appropriations
By David Clarke, CQ Staff
Democrats unveiled a $410 billion appropriations package Monday that represents the end of their spending fights with President George W. Bush — but not with congressional Republicans, who quickly attacked the bill as excessive.
It provides a first glimpse at how Democrats intend to order their spending priorities now that they control both Congress and the White House. President Obama will follow up Feb. 26 with his first budget outline.
The omnibus spending measure consists of the nine fiscal 2009 appropriations bills that mostly fund domestic agencies. Democrats chose not to finish the bills until Bush left office, because he threatened to veto them over their funding levels.
The bill (
Overall, the discretionary spending package would provide about $19 billion more than Bush requested in his budget for the nine bills almost a year ago. In September, the bills funding the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs were signed into law (PL 110-329).
The omnibus would provide about $31 billion more than what was spent on the nine bills in fiscal 2008, an 8 percent boost. It would fund most major domestic departments — such as Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services — and also the State Department and some foreign aid programs. Those agencies are currently being funded mostly at fiscal 2008 levels by a continuing resolution (CR) that expires March 6.
Appropriators agreed on large increases for many Democratic priorities. The omnibus would ramp up funding to state and local law enforcement and crime prevention programs by $495 million, to $3.2 billion, an 18.3 percent increase. It would increase funding for the Energy Department’s Office of Science by 18.7 percent, to $4.8 billion. Funding for Section 8 affordable housing vouchers would grow by 10.4 percent, to $7.1 billion.
Sparring Continues
Democrats defended waiting nearly five months after the fiscal year started to complete the remaining work rather than trying to cut a deal with Bush, and they portrayed consideration of the plan almost as a housekeeping chore.
“This upcoming omnibus is the unfinished business of last year when the president refused to address the priorities and the needs of the American people,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. “So we will get this done this week and then come in with a clean slate for how we go forward.”
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The House is expected to consider the bill starting Wednesday. Even though the legislation represents an agreement between House and Senate Democrats prior to its introduction, the package could be slowed down in the Senate by conservatives opposed to its spending levels, as well as the number of earmarks it contains.
Earlier in the year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., voiced support for the bill, but that was before a $787 billion economic stimulus bill (PL 111-5) was enacted that he and other Republicans said contained unnecessary spending.
House Republicans were highly critical of the funding boosts included in the omnibus, and they urged Democrats to essentially freeze spending for the rest of fiscal 2009.
“Our nation currently faces record deficit numbers and the Democrat leadership’s only plan is to pass another bloated bill and dig us in a deeper hole of debt,” said Rep. Mike Pence , R-Ind., who serves as House GOP conference chair. “This is no solution.”
The 12 fiscal 2009 appropriations bills include 5 percent less funding for earmarks than in fiscal 2008, when $10 billion was included for these mostly parochial projects requested by members, according to the House Appropriations Committee. Earmarks have come under greater scrutiny in recent years because of their ties to corruption scandals.
House and Senate appropriators worked out most of the bill late last year, but lawmakers and aides said it has been held back until now because of worries it would have gotten in the way of the stimulus bill, the Democrats’ top priority.
The omnibus provides spending increases for a number of programs that received funding in the stimulus bill — a point Republicans were quick to make as evidence it is too costly.
For instance, the omnibus includes $6.5 billion for the National Science Foundation, which is $363 million more than it received in fiscal 2008. But this doesn’t include the $3 billion it received in the stimulus measure.
Local law enforcement programs also received funding in both bills. The Byrne grants program would get $546 million in the omnibus. It received $2 billion in the stimulus package.
Shedding Bush-Era Priorities
In many ways, the bill illustrates the freedom Democrats bought by waiting for Bush to leave the White House and the Obama administration to move in.
Democrats cut or did not fund several of Bush’s priorities, which would have been more difficult if they had needed his approval for the final piece of legislation. Bush’s signature foreign aid program, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, would receive $875 million, which is $1.35 billion less than he requested. The bill would provide no funding for the Reading First literacy program, for which Bush requested $1 billion. In a release, the House Appropriations Committee argued the program was “plagued with mismanagement, conflicts of interest and cronyism.”
The omnibus measure also includes policy language opposed by the Bush administration. For instance, the bill would allow more frequent travel to Cuba by Americans with relatives there and would make it easier to sell agricultural products to the Communist island nation. It also would prevent the IRS from using private debt collectors — a point of contention between Democrats and the administration during the last Congress.
Comments
I can't imagine Senate Republicans voting down the omnibus, given that McConnell was pretty clear in the lead up to the Inauguration that he would prefer to see the Omnibus passed, rather than an economic stimulus. Besides, the programs contained in the Omnibus are more "Senator-friendly," as they tend to apply to full states, where moderation is called for, rather than Congressional districts, where ideology can control.
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