Senate Committee Passes FY08 Appropriations Bill

Last Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2008 (FY08) Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. The Senate bill allocates more than $152 billion for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, $9 billion more than the President requested, and about $1 billion less than the House Subcommittee allocated two weeks ago (including advanced appropriations). This increase makes up a large chunk of the $20 billion difference between the spending caps set in the joint budget resolution, and the President’s total request for FY08. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) received over $60 billion, about $1 billion less than the House bill.

Last Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2008 (FY08) Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. The Senate bill allocates more than $152 billion for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, $9 billion more than the President requested, and about $1 billion less than the House Subcommittee allocated two weeks ago (including advanced appropriations). This increase makes up a large chunk of the $20 billion difference between the spending caps set in the joint budget resolution, and the President’s total request for FY08. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) received over $60 billion, about $1 billion less than the House bill.
Although most programs, such as Title I State Grants and IDEA Part B State Grants, received increases over the FY07 levels, programs such as Career and Technical Education State Grants, Teacher Quality State Grants, and Education Technology State Grants received level funding. The only two programs to receive funding cuts are Reading First ($229 million less than FY07) and Safe and Drug Free Schools State Grants ($46.5 million less than FY07). Although both chambers are proposing these cuts, the House bill cuts Reading First by $629 million. Both chambers are reacting to the accusations of mismanagement of the Reading First program that has plagued ED this year.
The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its bill two weeks ago, but disagreements over earmarks forced House appropriators to move their timetable back, pushing the bill back until after the July 4th Recess. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) reluctantly backed off from his promise to have all 12 FY08 spending bills passed before the recess, in light of the earmark challenges. All spending bills in the House will have the special spending projects adopted into the bill before they hit the House floor, forcing the Appropriations Committee to extend the deadlines for each bill.
There is currently no finalized schedule for when the Senate will bring its spending bills to the floor, but the delays in the House will likely push the final votes on conference reports back until after the month-long August recess. That will leave Congress only one month to complete all spending bills before October 1, the beginning of FY08, as many members promised during the 2006 midterm elections. An additional challenge is the White House’s threat to veto all appropriations bills that far exceed the President’s request. The total spending cap set in the joint budget resolution is about $20 billion more than the President requested.
The White House has signaled that the President will allow for some increases, but that his tolerance is limited. The consensus on Capitol Hill is that the President may sign off on only $7 billion or $8 billion total over his entire request. If that level is reached before the Labor-HHS-Education bill makes it to the President’s desk, its chances of success are unlikely. House Republicans recently released a letter showing they have 147 Congressmen signed on to sustain any Presidential veto (only 145 votes are required). Appropriators likely have until September to reach a compromise on the spending levels, or convince a sufficient number of those 147 Republicans to back off of their stated opposition. Otherwise, the only other option will be to pass an omnibus package, likely after the October 1 deadline passes, that funds too many important programs for the President to risk the political fallout of a veto.
A chart of the Senate funding levels is attached to this email.
Resources:
Appropriations Committee Press Release: http://appropriations.senate.gov/
Author: SAS