BUDGET ALERT: MARCH 29, 2007

Senate Passes War Supplemental
House Passes 2008 Budget Resolution

BUDGET PROCESS: STEP-BY-STEP™

Thursday, March 29: Senate passed the FY 2007 War Supplemental 51-47 (details below). House passed FY 2008 Budget Resolution 216-210 (details below).

Week of April 2: Senate and House in recess. House and Senate staffs “pre-conference” War Supplemental and Budget Resolution.

Week of April 9: Senate reconvenes; House in recess for an additional week. House and Senate staffs “pre-conference” Budget Resolution.

Week of April 16: House-Senate Conferences on FY 2007 War Supplemental and FY 2008 Budget Resolution. Final votes expected on War Supplemental and Budget Resolution Conference Reports.

April 27: House Appropriations Committee deadline for submission of FY 2008 earmark requests.

Late April: House and Senate Appropriations Committees make critical discretionary spending allocations (known as 302(b) allocations) among their 12 subcommittees. This is a key step in setting Federal spending priorities.

SENATE PASSES WAR SUPPLEMENTAL

The Senate this morning passed HR 1591, the FY 2007 War Supplemental. The 51-47 vote was nearly party line, except for Republicans Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) voting for the bill and Independent Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) voting against the bill. Not voting were Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Tim Johnson (D-SD).

Major votes during the course of the bill's consideration were:

Passage of a Biden (D-DE) amendment to appropriate an additional $1.5 billion for procurement of an additional 2500 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for the Armed Forces (adopted 98-0);

Passage of a motion to “invoke cloture” (which precluded a potential filibuster) by a vote of 97-0; and

Rejection of a Cochran amendment to delete the Iraq withdrawal timetable by a vote of 48-50 (with Democrat Mark Pryor (AR) and Independent Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) voting for the amendment, and Republicans Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) voting against the amendment).

The Senate will now begin negotiation a final version of the bill with the House. Completion of the House-Senate conference will not occur until after the House returns from Easter/Passover recess the week of April 16.

With the addition of the Biden amendment, the cost of the Senate bill is now about $123 billion, compared with $124 billion for the House bill and $103 billion requested by the President. To access WBR's updated FY 2007 Supplemental Table comparing the Senate-passed and House-passed bills, and President's Request, click here.

Major conference issues will include:

(1) whether to send the House Iraq language or the Senate language to the President (the House language is more binding in its withdrawal mandate);

(2) whether to include the $1.5 billion added by the Senate for mine-resistant vehicles;

(3) the size of the small business tax relief package that accompanies the minimum wage increase;

(4) the amount of Defense Operations and Maintenance funding;

(5) the amount of LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance) emergency funding;

(6) the amount of farm disaster fund ; and

(7) the amount of Katrina assistance.

HOUSE PASSES 2008 BUDGET RESOLUTION

Today, the House passed H.Con.Res. 99, the FY 2008 Budget Resolution, by a vote of 216-210. All Republicans and 12 Democrats voted against the resolution.

The resolution now goes to a House-Senate conference, with final action to occur the week of April 16 following the Easter/Passover recess.

As a concurrent resolution of the Congress, the measure does not become law and does not go to the President. It sets the total amount of discretionary funding available to the Appropriations Committee to divide up among the government's annually funded discretionary programs, establishes enforceable total Federal spending and revenue levels, and allocates spending levels for entitlement programs to the various committees of jurisdiction.

The three substitute budgets debated during today's session of the House were defeated, as follows:

The Congressional Black Caucus Budget was defeated 115-312, with a slim majority of Democrats supporting the plan.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget was defeated 81-340, with all Republicans and a majority of Democrats opposing the plan.

The Republican Caucus Budget was defeated 160-268, with one Democrat, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, voting for the plan.

Further details on the substitute plans are available in our March 28, 2007 Budget Alert.