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By Manu Raju
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Posted: 11/02/07 07:54 PM [ET] |
Senate Republicans said Thursday they would invoke new ethics rules to block Democratic efforts to send to President Bush the first appropriations package of the 110th Congress.
Despite Republican grumbling, House and Senate negotiators on Thursday agreed to tack a $65 billion bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction onto a $151 billion bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education departments. The Veterans Affairs measure is about $4 billion more than Bush’s budget request, and the Labor-HHS-Education bill would add $10 billion to the president’s proposal.
When the conference report moves to the Senate floor — which could happen as early as next week — Republicans plan to raise a point of order to strike the language on Veterans Affairs and military construction. The move will likely intensify a partisan battle over spending priorities and allow each side to blame the other for delaying funding for veterans.
“It will be up to Republicans in the Senate whether they want to turn [their] back on our veterans right before Veterans Day,” said Patty Murray of Washington, a member of Senate Democratic leadership who sits on the Appropriations Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee.
“Where does this process take us except to delay getting vital needed funds to our veterans?” said Rep. Roger Wicker (Miss.), ranking Republican on the corresponding House subcommittee.
Bush and congressional Republicans are protesting Democratic efforts to tie the two measures together, arguing that the majority is holding veterans’ money hostage for an incremental increase in domestic policy programs.
Bush has threatened to veto the Labor-HHS measure, but not the spending bill for veterans and military construction.
Democrats argue that the process is hardly unprecedented, and say that the White House is out of step with the public in opposing increased funding for health research and education. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wants to send to Bush the first fiscal 2008 appropriations package by the end of next week.
But for that goal to be fulfilled, Democrats will have to get around procedural hurdles in the Senate.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), the ranking Republican on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs panel, said she would raise a point of order on the Senate floor to strike the $65 billion for veterans and military construction. The point of order would object to adding new legislative language in a House-Senate conference committee. The Senate needs 60 votes to override the point of order.
Under the new ethics law, which was enacted in September, sustaining a point of order would strike the offending language, in this case the Veterans Affairs measure. The bill without the offending language would then be sent back to the House for reconsideration. Before the law, sustaining the point of order under Senate Rule 28 would essentially kill the bill.
Congress changed the rules to make it easier for members to strike language inserted during the penultimate stage of the legislative process. When they regained their majority at the beginning of the year, Democrats vowed to make conference committee action more transparent after complaining for years that Republicans had abused the process by inserting provisions in the dead of night.
At Thursday’s conference committee, Republicans warned that tying the two bills together would be fruitless.
“This bill will undoubtedly be split,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), a senior appropriator.
But House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) warned that if Senate Republicans sustain a point of order to split the bill, they would be held responsible for holding up funding for veterans and military personnel.
“I fail to understand your logic, sir,” Stevens said.
“That isn’t the first time someone has failed to understand my logic,” Obey retorted. |
