CQ($)

The [Homeland Security appropriations] legislation which passed 268-150 included Republican amendments adding funds for border fencing at the expense of the Homeland Security secretary's administrative budgets and a ban on funding implementation of new passport requirements for Western Hemisphere travelers.

[...]

Overall, the bill would provide $37.4 billion to the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2008. Of that, $36.25 billion would be discretionary spending, $2.1 billion, or 6 percent, more than President Bush requested, and $4.3 billion, or 14 percent, more than in fiscal 2007.

The bill would allocate $8.8 billion for customs and border protection and $6.6 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, both slightly more than the amount requested, and $8.4 billion for the Coast Guard, slightly less than requested.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency would receive $7.4 billion, 41 percent more than requested and 20 percent more than its fiscal 2007 funding. The measure also would provide $950 million for state and local grants, about triple the amount requested, and $800 million for port and rail security grants, about double Bush's request.

To keep you up to date on the status of the appropriations process, we'll update and post the following chart indicating the status of each of the 12 federal spending bills.

Each column represents a gatekeeper in both chambers for each bill - the responsible appropriations subcommittee, the full appropriations committee, and the full chamber. A green box indicates that the respective body has approved the bill and is awaiting approval of the next body. The number in each box is the dollar amount in billions that the body has appropriated.

As we surmised last week, President Bush has dropped his long-standing threat to veto any FY 2008 appropriations bills that exceed the amounts he has requested, agreeing to sign a Military Construction-VA bill that provides $4 billion more than he has sought, so long as the $4 billion difference is accompanied by "reductions in other appropriations bills to offset this increase," according to Wednesday's Statement of Administration Policy on the bill.

But the Senate Appropriations Committee took no heed of the Statement, approving the bill yesterday 28-1. The Senate version of the bill is identical to the House bill. The House Appropriations vote last week was 56-0. The full House may vote on the bill as early as today.

The preponderance of the proposed increase goes toward veterans' health care, specifically research into and the treatment of traumatic brain injuries and stress disorders. NPR reported this morning that 40 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from severe psychological problems.

The ECAP Coalition issued a statement on the 147 House Republicans who think it's smart to cozy up to the President and his severe budget:

147 House Republicans Cave to Pressure from Right-Wingers to Support Bush Veto and Cut Funding for Americans in Need

Congress Has a Clear Choice: Stand with the President's Cuts to Health and Education, or Support America's Hardworking Families

WASHINGTON, DC — According to press reports this morning, 147 Republican Members of Congress have caved to political pressure from the GOP leadership and special interests and signed a "Republican Study Committee" letter pledging to support a Presidential veto of any appropriations bill that increase spending on health care, education, and other critical needs for lower- and middle-income families. By signing the right-wing "Republican Study Committee" letter, Members of Congress were pledging to sustain a veto of appropriations measures sight unseen. Congress passed a budget last month that begins to reverse six years of misguided priorities in previous Republican budgets, but the White House has threatened to veto any domestic spending above the President's requested levels, claiming that these much needed and overdue increases would be too expensive. But the fact is that the President's budget would spend far more on tax cuts for millionaires than it would save from all of the cuts to domestic discretionary programs[i].

The veto threats of FY 2008 spending bills are coming fast and furious from the White House. The third such threat of the week was issued yesterday:

• H.R. 2641 —- The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

Budget Context:The veto threat includes this language:

The Democratic Budget Resolution and subsequent spending allocations adopted by the House Appropriations Committee exceed the President's discretionary spending topline by $22 billion, causing a 9 percent increase in FY 2008 discretionary spending.

The President has proposed [a] discretionary spending total of not more than $933 billion in FY 2008, which is a $60 billion increase over the FY 2007 enacted level.

The president's rash of threats to veto eight of the 12 spending bills this year is apparently motivated by this fact: the president is holding rigidly to a seven percent increase, while the Congress recklessly proposes an increase of nine percent.

The difference is less than the rate of inflation, $20 billion in a $13 trillion economy, but apparently enough to "put economic growth and a balanced budget at risk."

This afternoon, the Senate Appropriations Committee released the list of FY 2008 discretionary spending caps allocated to each of its subcommittees of jurisdiction, under Budget Act section 302(b). The House Appropriations announced its own 302(b) allocations on June 5.

The agreed-upon Budget Resolution set the overall discretionary cap for FY 2008 at $953.1 billion, $20 billion -- or two percent -- above President Bush's requests. The House and Senate sub-allocations are virtually identical. In no case do the two sets of allocations differ by more than a few hundred million dollars, except for Labor-HHS; the House calls for a $151.1 billion Labor-HHS cap and the Senate calls for $149.2 billion.

The close parallel in 302 (b) allocations is intentionally designed to avoid protected conference committee negotiations.

I'm a little confused. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has list of 147 Republican Congresspersons who have pledged to vote to sustain any presidential veto of FY 2008 spending bills.

House Republicans have done an impressive job of ruining their fiscal credibility with voters, and it won't be easy making amends. Today, however, they are taking one step toward redemption when Texan Jeb Hensarling announces that he's gathered signatures from 147 House GOP Members promising to sustain vetoes of any spending bill that exceeds President Bush's budget requests.

I'm really at a loss to explain why Hensarling would wave this list around and make promises about 147 Republicans, because he's going to look awfully silly when Congress overrides any spending bill veto. Either Hensarling will have to eat crow and admit he was full of it, or he will have point to a number of his Republican collegues who failed to make good on their commitments.

And based on this reporting from CongressDaily PM ($) yesterday, it seems that Hensarling is in fact "rounding upwards" the number of veto-sustainers, or the promised sustainers are already showing their, ummm, "flexibility."

OMB Director Portman had previously told reporters even the popular military housing and veterans' funding bill could be subject to a veto threat, as the White House attempts to take a hard line over the $23 billion overall spending increase...But veterans' health is an even more sensitive and emotional issue politically, and GOP aides said Bush would not have the votes to sustain a veto in either chamber.

So, is Hensarling being totally straight with us, or are certain Republican representatives already losing their resolve? There's really only one way to figure this out: Show me that list, Hensarling!

• Analysis: Although the Bush Administration had threatened to veto the bill on the grounds that it provides greater spending than the president had requested, it has not issued a Statement of Administration Policy repeating this threat, indicating that, as some Bush aides have conceded, the administration probably cannot sustain a veto -- most of the spending increase in the bill supports popular Veterans health programs.

• Analysis: The increased spending in the bill is for improvements in aviation security, port and border security, and grant programs for first responders and interoperable communications, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission. The bill contains no earmarks, but Republicans say they still have about 100 amendments barring an assortment of hypothetical earmarks. Expect outrage expressed in New York accents.

Full Senate Appropriations Committee mark-ups on the above bills were scheduled to begin today.

As H.R. 2638, the $36.3 billion Homeland Security bill, headed for debate on the House floor today, it met with a stern veto threat from the administration because "it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending." The administration had requested $34.2 billion.

During the six fiscal years of the Bush presidency thus far, six years of GOP control of Congress, the national debt has increased by approximately 3 trillion dollars to almost $9 trillion.

I just got back from a trip to Spain, and I thought I'd share a few of the things that made it hard to come back. Or rather things that, were they also in America, it would have been much easier to come back.

• Fast Trains
  Spain has very fast trains. Seems like the benefits are pretty self-explanatory, but I just thought I'd mention that being on an extremely fast train is really fun, all practicality aside.
• Holidays
  Spain seems to have lots of holidays. By my count, there were two holidays during the week or so I was there. If I spoke better Spanish, I'd tell you what they were about, but I don't, so all I really know is that they got parades, concerts, lots of social events, and maybe even a day off work.
• No homelessness
  I was in the biggest cities in Spain- Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona, and in total I saw two people sleeping on the street. I don't know how they did it, but it seems like the whole country's doing something right.
• Public social space.
  Spanish cities have lots of big squares where everyone hangs out. Cafes have seating inside the squares, and stores are clustered around them, with big fountains or statues in the middle. Streets would be closed to car traffic, and people would get to walk through them at night. Beaches seemed like they were completely open to the public, and you didn't have to pay for them.

All of these things probably have something to do with public policy. They're basic quality of living issues, and they would seem to foster a greater sense of community. And they make Spain a nice place to take a vacation.

Following the flurry of initial appropriations activity in the House this week, the Senate will swing into action next week. [Note: the House and Senate 302(b) allocations for FY 2008 are identical.]

The current mark-up schedule in the Senate Appropriations Committee is as follows:

• Tuesday, June 12:
  • Military Construction-VA ($65 billion; $4 billion over the president's request) -- subcommittee mark-up
  • Homeland Security ($36 billion; $2 billion over) -- subcommittee committee mark-up

• Thursday, June 14:
  • Military Construction-VA -- full committee mark-up
  • Homeland Security -- full committee committee mark-up

The House Appropriations Committee got down to business this week and approved four bills for full floor consideration. You will note that all of them exceed the president's request. Given OMB Director Rob Portman's warning that he will recomend that the president veto any bill over the president's request, the veto pen might run out of ink before all spending bills are completed.

Also: Dana has some interesting stuff to say about the Military Construction & VA bill

There's nothing unusual about a 56-0 vote committee vote to approve the FY 2008 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bill, as occurred yesterday when the House Appropriations Committee OK'ed the $109 billion measure, $4 billion above the president's request -- $2.5 billion of which goes to politically unassailable funding for veterans' health care. Only a little more unusual is holding a roll call vote where the bill has unanimous support.

Getting all 29 committee Republicans on record in support, however, raises questions about the wisdom and efficacy of the administration's unremitting threats to veto all spending bills that exceed Bush's original request. As House Appropriations chair Rep. David Obey (D-WI) explained delicately:

I wanted to demonstrate that if they do that, Congress will hand them their head. The fact is it is not credible for the White House to claim that they're going to veto that bill.

The 56-0 vote flies in the face of a House GOP gambit to block any veto override efforts by Congress. House Defense Appropriations ranking member Bill Young (R-FL) has bad news

I don't see that bill getting vetoed. If it does, I see it getting overridden.

for his GOP colleagues and President Bush, who sound like born-again deficit hawks, veterans' health be danged.

CBO's Monthly Budget Review has been released:

The federal government incurred a deficit of $152 billion during the first eight months of fiscal year 2007, CBO estimates, $75 billion less than the shortfall recorded through May of last year. In comparison with receipts collected during the same period in 2006, revenues have risen by about 8 percent; outlays have grown by less than 3 percent. CBO expects that the government will end 2007 with a deficit of between $150 billion and $200 billion.

New Hampshire government officials are worried that proposed federal budget cuts to programs for the elderly might hinder their efforts to provide low-cost meals and other programs. The Bush budget proposed to cut those types of programs under the Older Americans Act by 6 percent this year.