House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Appropriations Chair David Obey (D-WI) told lawmakers today that Democratic House leadership will advance a $183.6 billion war supplemental spending bill. It combines the remainder of President Bush's FY 2008 request and his partial FY 2009 request and will fund the wars in Iraq an Afghanistan through the remainder of Bush's term. The bill, which could be voted on early as Thursday, includes several domestic spending provisions:

• $11 billion (over 10 years) for unemployment insurance expansion

Congressional opposition to the Frank housing bill is coalescing around apparently dubious propositions ($). [Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)] also took aim at the [Rep. Barney] Frank proposal. "This bill perversely rewards those who borrowed more than they could afford — their monthly mortgage payments get reduced with the government footing the bill. How is that fair to the millions of Americans who worked hard and paid their mortgages on time? And who ends up holding the bag if all goes south? No surprise, the American taxpayer."

War Supplemental -- Appropriators Seek Mark-Ups: On both the House and Senate side, senior Appropriations Committee members have asked, or demanded, that mark-ups be held of the president's "emergency" supplemental war funding requests, as is the usual practice. Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA), the ranking House Appropriations Republican: "Never in my 30 years in Congress has there been such an abuse of the processes and rules of the House. We... demand that this polluted, back-door scheme be brought to a halt, and that we return to a proper, fair and transparent appropriations process." Story.

On Thursday, May 1, the the President officially requested that Congress appropriate $70 billion in supplemental funding to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combined with the $108 billion in supplemental funding that Congress is currently mulling to fulfill the remainder of Bush's FY 2008 request, contemplated combined spending package would total $178 billion -- by far the world's biggest supplemental spending bill. (This number omits some $20 billion in domestic spending that Congress has, of late, been considering attaching to the supplemental.) Consider: