Appropriations Schedule

When Congress comes back on July 9, the House Appropriations Committee will not take up the appropriations bills immediately. The Committee will return to the spending bills the week of July 16. That gives the House three weeks to pass all of its fiscal 2008 spending bills before the August recess, as Democratic leaders have vowed to do. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its bill on June 21.

The outlook, however, is not promising. To pass all of its appropriation bills, Congress must report every remaining bill out of committee, pass the bills through their respective chambers, go to conference, and get past the White House, which has threatened vetoes on bills that substantially exceed the President’s requested funding levels. These bills do just that. The House bill provides $151.5 billion for Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education, which is $10.6 billion more than the White House requested. That includes $61.7 for the U.S. Department of Education (ED), which is $5.4 billion above the President’s request. The Senate bill also proposes more than $152 billion for the Departments of Labor, HHS and Education or more than $10 billion more than the President’s request.

House Republicans claim they have enough votes to sustain a veto, which means that Congress could finish every bill before August and then have nearly four weeks in September to reconsider any bill that the President vetoes. Yet, the more time efficient end-of-year-choice may be to combine multiple bills into one large omnibus appropriations package, a procedure that Democrats once condemned Republicans for using.

Author: DAD