Senate passes fifth appropriations bill

Senate lawmakers on Thursday approved a transportation and housing appropriations bill that permits more than $122 billion in new spending on roads, community grants and a host of other areas.

Taken together, the bill amounts to a 12 percent increase in transportation and housing funding, The Associated Press reported.

Unfortunately for Senate lawmakers, the chamber has seven appropriations bills still to tackle. Worse yet, none of the finished spending packages have even reached a House-Senate conference. The fear on Capitol Hill is that Congress will miss its Oct. 1 fiscal deadline, or that it will have to pass an omnibus appropriations bill to hasten its remaining business -- a maneuver a number of Democrats do not favor.

“What I would not like to see is an omnibus bill, or something that doesn't allow all the work that was done by the committee to be reflected as such,” Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), a senior House appropriator, previously told The Hill.