Appropriations

Rep. Obey, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, announced Tuesday he will oppose a war funding bill.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Thursday was selected to take the place of the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) on the powerful Appropriations Committee. 

Byrd, who passed away this month, was a former chairman of the panel. His last term at the helm ended after he stepped down in early 2009 due to his increasing frailty in old age. 

"I look forward to joining my colleagues on the committee — including Chairman [Daniel] Inouye [D-Hawaii] and Ranking Member [Thad] Cochran [R-Miss.] to ensure budget dollars are allocated in the most effective way possible to promote economic progress and fiscal stability," Brown said in a statement after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) picked him to fill the vacancy. 

Brown is a first-term senator who also serves on two keys committees that worked on financial and healthcare reform legislation. 

The Ohio senator said he would direct funds to the Buckeye State, much like Byrd did for West Virginia. 

“This is about Ohio getting its fair share of federal resources that promote economic development,” Brown said. “For too long, Ohio has been a donor state — with Ohio taxpayers supporting other states by paying out more in federal taxes than our state receives."

Cross-posted from Blog Briefing Room. 

A reconciled bill to fund the Federal Aviation Administration could be ready this week. 

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said he expects a final product on the long-delayed bill to be ready for Senate floor action by the middle of the week. 

Rockefeller will give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) a bill this week he hopes will pass by the August recess, a Senate aide told The Hill. 

The union issue with FedEx and UPS will be handled on the floor, most likely in a separate vote from the main bill, Rockefeller told The Hill.

The House’s FAA bill shifts FedEx ground operations jurisdiction that would put FedEx and UPS under the same rules. FedEx has called it a “bailout” for UPS.

Democrats on the committee approved a higher spending level — $1.114 trillion — over the objections of GOP appropriators.

House Appropriations Republicans are pushing for passage of a $58.8 billion supplemental spending bill that mirrors Senate-passed legislation over a more expensive House measure. 

House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) introduced a measure Thursday that he called a "clean" bill to provide funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster assistance. 

If the Republican bill isn't brought up for consideration, Lewis said he may seek to amend another spending bill in full committee.

"If the Democrat leadership of the House would just let our clean supplemental come to the floor, the bill could be on the president’s desk and the funding could be in the hands of our military commanders by next week," he said. 

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies approved more than $141.1 billion in total fiscal 2011 funding, including $77.25 billion in discretionary funding. 

The bill is $1.535 million below the president’s discretionary request and $751.9 million below the current level. 

The measure includes $18.7 billion for military construction, equal to the request, and $56.99 billion in fiscal 2011 discretionary funding for the VA, $27.3 million above the request. 

In addition, the bill includes $50.6 billion in advance appropriations for veterans medical care for fiscal 2012.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security approved a fiscal 2011 $43.79 billion measure on Wednesday, a two percent increase above 2010 levels. 

The measure includes $9.92 billion for Customs and Border Protection, $107.5 million above the president’s request and $210 million below current levels. 

That funding includes $3.57 billion for 20,370 border patrol agents, with 17,000 based on the nation's Southwest border, more than double the agents in 2004, according to the subcommittee. 

About $20 million would go toward counter-drug initiatives for southbound operations lanes, personnel, and equipment to stop the outbound flow of weapons and currency used in the drug trade, $25.9 million for new officers, pilots, vessel operators, and staff and $20.5 million for one additional unmanned aircraft system and support equipment.

Republicans, Democrats and the Obama administration have proposed additional funding and agents along the nation's southern border, as violence has increased. 

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies approved a fiscal 2011 $77.3 billion discretionary spending bill on Wednesday. 

The measure matches the Obama administration's request and is $745 million less than the fiscal year 2010 amount, mainly because of decreased spending for the final year of BRAC 2005. 

The bill includes an $18.7 billion request for military construction and family housing, the same as the administration’s request.

The BRAC request, which is scheduled for completion in September 2011, is fully funded at $2.4 billion. The measure also provides funds to support additional construction requirements for operations in Afghanistan at $1.3 billion, as requested by the administration. 

Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans requested on Tuesday a three-year spending freeze setting non-defense discretionary spending at $1.108 trillion for fiscal 2011, not including war or emergency spending. 

That amount is $16.2 billion less than requested by President Obama for fiscal 2011, $41 billion less for fiscal 2012 and $33.1 billion less in 2013 for the plan authored by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

“I think that’s a terrific idea — it’s the right thing to do to place a cap on growth,” McCaskill told reporters shortly after Republicans announced their plan. “I think if we try to do massive cutting right now we could be dangerously close to a much more serious recession. But capping growth is exactly what we should be doing.”

McCaskill said the provision is only one or two votes away from gaining approval. 

A White House official pressed Monday for a one-year extension of a program that is expected create about 200,000 jobs by September, but has been targeted by Republicans for elimination. 

The push is to continue the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants program, reauthorized by the 2009 economic stimulus bill and set to expire Sept. 30. The program was created in 1996 as a replacement for welfare. 

“At a time like this, when there are still far too many Americans out of a job, policy makers might consider this simple rule: when a program is successfully and efficiently creating jobs, don’t eliminate it,” said Jared Bernstein, chief economic advisor to the vice president, in a blog post.

The extension of the program is included in a tax extenders bill that has gone through several revisions in the Senate but hasn’t been passed yet. The latest version was paid for, but several Republicans have asked for modifications to the suggested tax increases that would pay for the bill.