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VA BUDGET AND OTHER SPENDING BILLS: MUCH ACTION
BUT LITTLE PROGRESS -- Republicans began
turning up
the heat on Democrats for holding up the
Military Construction-
VA bill, which includes veterans' funding.
For more about the VA budget, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=va+budget&op=ph
Story here...
http://public.cq.com/
docs/bt/btnews110-000002600237.html
Story below:
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CQ BUDGET TRACKER NEWS
Spending Bills: Much Action, Little Progress
By Chuck Conlon and Kerry Young
Budget Tracker Editors
Democrats yesterday said they had taken another step toward moving the
first fiscal 2008 spending bills to the president, while rhetoric
continued to fly on a number of budget issues.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We solved our 302(b) allocation
situation" -- a critical first step before the House and Senate can
negotiate compromises on individual spending bills. Although both
chambers were using the same topline number for overall discretionary
spending, they differed in spending levels for individual bills (the
so-called 302(b) allocations). For instance, the House's Labor-HHS-Education
bill would provide $1.9 billion more than the Senate version, while the
Senate's C-J-S bill would provide $868 million more than the House.
Negotiators for individual bills need to know their final allocation in
order to determine what program funding trade-offs can be made within
the bill. Details on the allocations were not made available, nor was it
clear whether allocations had been set for all 12 bills.
Republicans began turning up the heat on Democrats for holding up the
Military Construction-VA bill, which includes veterans' funding.
Minority Leader Boehner wrote to Speaker Pelosi noting that conferees
hadn't been appointed for the popular bill, expressing concern it was
being held back to carry other spending bills and urging immediate
action. "Adequate funding for health care and housing for our veterans
and men and women in uniform is a top priority for Congress, and their
needs should take precedence over partisan politics." OMB Director
Nussle sounded a similar theme in a letter to appropriators, saying,
"Our veterans deserve better. Funding for these critical programs should
not be held hostage in an effort to promote a political agenda."
Look for Republicans to continue highlighting the veterans bill.
Democrats in recent years effectively battered Republicans over
shortages in veterans' funding, and Republicans are ready to return the
favor. For their part, Democrats yesterday continued to contrast the
costs of the war in Iraq with Bush's opposition to expanding children's
health coverage, and proposed spending for education and infrastructure
improvements.
The two parties also traded shots regarding fiscal responsibility, with
each side releasing dueling reports on the impact of Democratic paygo
rules. Democrats highlighted massive deficits incurred during the Bush
presidency when tax cuts and new mandatory spending were enacted without
being offset, and they heralded the Democratic paygo rules created this
year that strictly require offsets. In their report, released at a press
conference by Speaker Pelosi, Democrats said they had "restored fiscal
discipline," noting that every bill passed by the House this year had
complied with paygo, including 30 that required offsets of $1 million or
more. Said Pelosi, "Fiscal responsibility is a central principle of the
House Democrats."
Republicans countered that most offsets were paid for by "gimmicks, fees
or tax increases" -- even while admitting the GOP had used budget
gimmicks in the past. In a briefing with reporters, top House GOP budgeteer Ryan said,
"Republicans have been guilty of gimmicks in the
past, Democrats are guilty of gimmicks in the present," arguing it was
different now because of the coming fiscal crisis caused by rapidly
growing major entitlements. Ryan said that although each bill
technically complied with paygo, Democrats were violating the spirit of
the rule and actually "racking up more liabilities for taxpayers" that
would cause the nation to go further into debt. Paygo, he said, "is
nothing more than a recipe for tax increases."
Source: CQ Budget Tracker News
Reporting the deals, dollars and decisions of the federal budget
process.
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Larry Scott --
