FY08 House Appropriations

On late Thursday night (7/19), the House passed H.R. 3043, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2008 (FY08) by a vote of 276-140. The bill provides $151.6 billion in discretionary spending, including an additional $975 million for No Child Left Behind programs.

The House spent two and a half days debating many amendments that attempted to remove earmarks, shift money within the bill or provide new funding to particular programs and projects. Demonstrating his frustration with the process, Appropriations Committee Chairman Obey (D-WI) offered an amendment to strike project requests from the legislation. He called it the "put up or shut up" amendment, stating that he was tired of having the committee serve as a “punching bag" for the press corps. The amendment was rejected and the debate continued.

The President has stated that he will veto the bill if it exceeds his appropriations request and it does that by $12 billion. "The President has got the right to initiate spending bills,” said the President. “They've got the right to decide how much money is spent. If they overspend or if they try to raise your taxes, I'm going to veto their bills."

Thursday night’s vote was 14 votes short of the 290 votes required to override a Presidential veto. That means that the Democratic leadership will have to consider strategic alternatives if the President vetoes the bill. One option is to include the Labor-HHS-Education bill as part of an omnibus package consisting of multiple spending bills, making it very difficult for the President to veto such a large amount of funding and even more difficult for members of Congress to sustain a veto.

On the Senate side, the Labor-HHS-Education bill is not expected to go to the floor until after the August recess. On June 21, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY08 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. The Senate bill allocates more than $152 billion for Labor-HHS-Education, $9 billion more than the President requested, and about $1 billion less than the House Subcommittee.

Resources:
Scott Cox, “Appropriations Roundup and Outlook,” Gallery Watch, July 20, 2007.
Scott Cox, “House Nearing Final Vote on Labor-HHS-Education Legislation,” Gallery Watch, July 19, 2007.
Author: DAD