July 9, 2004

• FY2005 Appropriations Update: House Continues to Move Bills While Senate Remains Stalled

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FY2005 Appropriations Update: House Continues to Move Bills While Senate Remains Stalled

Since the House passed its version of the FY2005 budget resolution several weeks ago and the Senate failed to do so prior to the Memorial Day recess, it shifted into high gear on moving annual spending bills to the House floor, while the Senate has remained stalled.

The Senate Energy and Water Subcommittee was scheduled to mark up its FY2005 appropriations bill on July 7 — the only Senate appropriations markup officially scheduled for this week. The meeting was subsequently postponed.

The problem in the Senate is that with a waning legislative calendar (28 days) left in the current regular congressional session, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ted Stevens is seeking time agreements on the thirteen FY2005 appropriations bills prior to floor consideration in order to expedite debate. Democratic leaders, however, are asserting that they wan to see the bill text — as reported from subcommittee — before considering any time agreement.

During a press briefing on July 6, Majority Leader Bill Frist laid out a tentative floor schedule over the next three weeks (prior to the 31 day August recess) that further muddies the waters with respect to a clear game plan by the Republican leadership. According to the majority leader, after the body completes its work on the class action reform bill, it will likely take up a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Frist went on to state that "we have the Australia [free trade agreement] trade bill that sometime we will address over the next three weeks…"

Since it is not likely that the Senate will finish the class action bill before the end of the week (at the earliest), there will be just two weeks for legislative business before the August recess.

Frist may employ a "dual-track" agenda over the coming weeks, where a non-appropriations bill is debated during the first part of the day, and a spending bill is considered for the remainder of the day. Yet, this approach would not likely result in the passage of all thirteen appropriations bills individually prior to the start of FY2005 (October 1, 2004).

Add it all up, and all signs point to an omnibus being imminent. With the FY2005 homeland security spending bill awaiting floor action, it may be the obvious choice as the vehicle for incorporating the remaining FY2005 appropriations measures.

This also makes it very doubtful that the Senate will have time to take up any legislation other than these during this 109th Congress, including the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Here is an updated appropriations table reflecting the situation described above and appropriations action.

Bill	House Sub Committee	House Committee	House	Senate Sub Committee	Senate Committee	Senate
Agriculture HGW 201 SGW 201	6-14-04	6-23-04
Commerce-Justice-State H.R. 4754 SGW 202	6-15-04	6-23-04	Floor Debate Commenced
Defense H.R. 4613 S. 2559	6-09-04	6-16-04 H.Report 108-553	6-22-04	6-22-04	6-22-04	6-24-04 S. Report 108-284
DC HGW 204 SGW 204	7-7-04
Energy and Water H.R. 4614 SGW 205	6-9-04	6-16-04 H.Report 108-554	6-25-04	7-7-04 Scheduled Markup Cancelled
Foreign Ops HGW 206 SGW 206	6-23-04	7-9-04
Homeland Security	6-3-04	6-9-04 H. Report 108-541	6-18-04	6-16-04	6-17-04
Interior H.R. 4568 SGW 207	6-3-04	6-9-04 H. Report 108-542	6-17-04	Polled
Labor-HHS HGW 208 SGW 208	7-8-04 Scheduled Markup
Leg. Branch H.R. 4755 SGW 209	6-16-04	6-23-04		7-7&8-04 Scheduled Floor	Polled
Mil Con HGW 210 SGW 210	7-6-04 Scheduled Markup	7-9-04 Scheduled Markup
Trans-Treas HGW 212 SGW 212
VA-HUD HGW 213 SGW 213

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