Late
last week the House and Senate passed a continuing
resolution to fund federal agencies and programs through
Friday, December 21st, thus buying themselves
more time to work on FY 2008 appropriations and other
matters.
In
the waning days of the first session of the
110th Congress, Democrats are
attempting to end the stalemate with the President over
discretionary spending through an omnibus bill that
would combine eleven of the twelve spending bills. The
President has consistently and vehemently opposed the
$22 billion in domestic discretionary spending above his
request that has been sought by the Democrats. A proposal to
"split the difference" by including $11 billion more in
domestic discretionary spending than the President wants
and $11 billion less than the Democrats seek was also
deemed unacceptable to the Administration.
As
a result, last week Democrats began working on a
package that would largely stay within the President's
proposed limits for non-defense spending, although an
additional $3.7 billion for veterans' programs will
likely be included and not opposed by the
President. The omnibus bill
is also expected ultimately to include up to $70 billion
in emergency defense spending and perhaps some
additional domestic emergency spending.
Prospects
for passage of such an omnibus bill in both chambers of
Congress and a final President's signature may be a
little shaky, as antiwar Democrats are opposed
to emergency defense funding that lacks restrictions on
how it is spent.
Another impediment may be the inclusion of any
tax increases or policy riders opposed by the President
or Republican members of Congress.
Proposed
appropriations for WIA and other workforce development
programs - and the fate of the rescission in current WIA
funding last set at $245 million - will not be
known with certainty until the omnibus bill is
released.
It seems the best case scenario for FY 2008 WIA
appropriations might be level funding at the FY 2006 and
FY 2007 level (which, of course, does not take into
account the effects of inflation) and no more than $245
million for the rescission.
Should
an omnibus bill fail, the President has indicated that
he would be willing to sign another year-long continuing
resolution.
