Appropriations for 2008

July 16, 2007

As of July 16, the full House has passed seven appropriations bills with subcommittees having passed all twelve. The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed seven, although the full Senate has yet to pass its first. (See http://www.cq.com/graphics/weekly/2007/07/16/wr20070716-28appcht.pdf.)

The House intends to clear all appropriations bills before the August recess. The Senate will need to continue voting on appropriations after they return from the August recess (unless they don’t leave on August 3, as now scheduled.) After each appropriation has passed its own chamber, a conference committee will reconcile the House version with that of the Senate. This is expected to take place in September.

The president has threatened to veto five appropriations areas since the committee designated a higher amount than his budget proposed. Both the House and the Senate are bucking the President, realizing that his budget plunged critical programs deeper into debt, as they have in each of the past six budgets.

CURRENT APPROPRIATIONS ACTION – Week of July 16

Labor, Health & Human Services and Education

A critical appropriation area at this time is Labor, Health & Human Services and Education. This area funds many of the programs that allow those with little economic power to live with dignity. It is due to come to the floor for a House vote as early as Wednesday, July 18. (See “Weekly Legislative Hot News” on the NETWORK home page.)

Agriculture

The House appropriations committee will consider the draft agriculture appropriations bill, approved by the subcommittee last week. This bill funds most of the supplemental domestic nutrition programs, including WIC (Women, Infants and Children), school and summer food programs for children, and commodities food programs that are a great benefit to low-income seniors. Following appropriations committee approval this week, it most likely will come up for a floor vote the week of July 23.

Background

The Budget Committee designated the amounts available for appropriations from the FY2008 Budget. Chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees then determined what would be available for each of the twelve subcommittees:

• Agriculture
• Commerce, Justice, Science
• Defense
• Energy and Water Development
• Financial Services and General Government
• Homeland Security
• Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
• Labor, Health & Human Services and Education
• Legislative Branch
• Military Construction, Veterans Affairs
• State, Foreign Operations
• Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

Each appropriations subcommittee in the House and Senate has been working to apportion their funding to individual programs. This is one of the busiest and most difficult times for advocacy. Within a given subcommittee’s area, programs vie against each other for limited resources. Subcommittees often try to convince the Finance Committee that their area requires more money than has been allotted. This is particularly true this year, as several “reserve funds” have been established – these are authorized expenditures that can only be appropriated (spent) if an offset is found.