By David Clarke, CQ Staff

Democratic leaders are pushing ahead with what they consider a compromise spending plan — but they also are considering meeting President Bush’s budget demands if necessary to complete the appropriations process.

Much of the federal government currently is operating under a stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that expires Dec. 14 (PL 110-116). Congress has completed only one of the 12 annual spending bills, and with Christmas fast approaching, Democrats plan to roll multiple spending measures into an omnibus appropriations bill in an effort to expedite their work.

“We’re going to have an omnibus,’’ House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., told reporters at his weekly news conference. “There is no interest in a long-term CR on our side of the aisle.”

However, Congress might enact another short-term CR, lasting about a week, if the appropriations work is not completed by Dec. 14.

The Defense spending bill is the only regular fiscal 2008 appropriations bill signed into law (PL 110-116) so far.

As they assemble the omnibus package containing the 11 remaining fiscal 2008 spending bills, Democrats are aiming at a spending total that, when added to the Defense bill, splits the difference between what they want to spend and the president’s proposal to provide $933 billion in discretionary spending for the 12 annual appropriations bills.

Democrats proposed spending $23 billion more than Bush but have shaved $10.6 billion from their original plan in an effort to either win over the president or lure enough congressional Republicans to trump a veto threat.

The Democrats’ bill is expected to be ready for floor action early next week.

Plan A and Plan B

Even if they eventually accede to Bush’s spending demands, Democrats prefer a catch-all omnibus bill, which would give Congress more authority over how agencies spend their money, instead of a CR.

Democrats are hoping they can garner enough GOP support by early next week for additional funding. But if such a deal does not materialize, they are considering assembling an omnibus package that adheres to Bush’s overall spending request and voting on it before the end of the month, Democratic aides said.

This plan is not firm, aides cautioned, and decisions have changed frequently on how to complete this year’s spending work.

“There’s a Plan A. There’s a Plan B. There’s a Plan C. But there’s no point in talking about it because you just undercut your first preference,” House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey , D-Wis., said Wednesday. Obey has declined to discuss plans for the spending bills and has cautioned that they change often.

Producing a second spending bill by the end of the month would be difficult, but Democrats are confident that it’s possible. “We could get it done by the 21st or 22nd” of December, said an aide to a House appropriator.

If Democrats must produce a spending bill at the president’s funding level, they will make an issue of what programs will not receive extra funding and will try to exact a political price from Republicans. The president has repeatedly vowed to veto spending measures that exceed his overall request.

Some Senate Republicans are open to the “split-the-difference” approach, but only if such a deal also would include providing funding for the Iraq War without conditions.

Meanwhile, House GOP leaders and the White House have not shown interest in agreeing to more spending for the regular appropriations bills.

White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle met with both Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., on Wednesday, but they did not appear to be moving toward a compromise.

Emergency Funding

Democrats hope to add a variety of items using “emergency” spending, which does not count against the discretionary spending cap, to their split-the-difference bill in a bid to gain GOP support. They are targeting items with Republican support or those that were earlier requested by the White House, a House Democratic aide said.

For instance, Democrats plan to include $3 billion in border security funds that Republicans offered as an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security bill (HR 2638). The Senate adopted that amendment, 89-1. They also are considering adding $600 million for drought relief, $300 million for wildfire prevention programs, $200 million for bridge repair in Minnesota, $100 million for security at the upcoming political nominating conventions and $400 million for the Agriculture Department’s Women, Infants and Children nutrition program (WIC).

Also likely to be included in the spending package is more than $2 billion for foreign aid programs, such as humanitarian aid for Darfur, which the administration included in its war spending request this year.

One area Democrats have tapped for savings in their “split-the-difference” approach is earmarks. House and Senate leaders agreed after the August recess to cut earmark funding by 40 percent from fiscal 2006 levels, or fiscal 2005 in the case of the Labor-HHS-Education bill (HR 3043). House leaders, especially Obey, wanted to go further in the omnibus being drafted, but Senate appropriators balked.

A House aide said there is an agreement to cut earmark funding by slightly more than 40 percent, and some subcommittees have gone further.

Earmarks will likely be cut dramatically if Democrats end up producing a final bill that matches Bush’s overall funding level.

Obey said he’s grown tired of the debate surrounding these projects and GOP complaints about the process.

“I’ve had it with earmarks,” Obey said. “As far as I’m concerned, we can take every single one of them out.”

Alan K. Ota, Edward Epstein and Liriel Higa contributed to this story.