Congress Passes Budget Resolution

On Thursday, both the House and the Senate passed the conference report on S Con Res 21, the budget resolution for fiscal year 2008 (FY08). The final resolution caps discretionary spending for FY08 at $954.1 billion. Just after the House passed the budget resolution by a vote of 214-209, the Senate voted 52-40 in favor of the conference report. Now that both chambers have passed the resolution, the House Appropriations subcommittees can begin work on the FY08 spending bills. However, the close margins on both votes suggest that Democrats should not expect too much cooperation from Republican appropriators.

Under the discretionary spending limit, the budget resolution sets the cap on education, training, employment, and social services at $85.7 billion. More specifically, the budget resolution increases the allowable education funding by $3.6 billion over the FY07 level, to $59.5 billion. The resolution also directs the two education committees to produce legislation by September 10 that would provide savings of $750 million over the next six years.

Now that the budget resolution is complete, House appropriators are ready to begin marking up the 12 spending bills for FY08. Although House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) is starting a little behind schedule, he and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) still plan to have all FY08 appropriations bills passed through the House before the July 4 recess. Chairman Obey plans to begin marking up the Labor-HHS-Appropriations bill sometime in the next few weeks. It is scheduled to be the third in line for passage on the House floor in sometime in June, which Rep. Hoyer has dubbed, “Appropriations Month.”

Although appropriators are set to begin their work, Republicans in both the House and Senate are less than eager to cooperate. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, has stated his reluctance to cooperate with Democratic leaders after they chose to pass the FY07 Continuing Resolution under a closed rule, which did not allow for amendments from the minority party. With Republicans feeling uncooperative, Democrats are going to have to work hard to keep their own party on board, which, evidenced by the vote on the budget resolution, will not be an easy task.

On the Senate side, Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) also faces Republican challenges. Seven Republican Senators (Sam Brownback of Kansas, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, John McCain of Arizona, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire) did not cast a vote on final passage of the budget resolution. However, all Democrats and Independents, with the exception of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), voted in favor of the conference report. Johnson, who is still recovering from a brain hemorrhage, has not cast a vote all year. The Democrats will be hoping for his return, because they have a long fight ahead of them in the FY08 appropriations cycle.

Resources:
Jonathan Allen, “Budget Debate Sets Up Fights to Come Over Domestic Spending, Tax Cuts,” CQ Today, May 17, 2007.
Jonathan Allen, “Congress Adopts $2.9 Trillion Fiscal 2008 Budget Resolution,” CQ Today, May 17, 2007.
Author: SAS