When I think of the Senate, I picture something like the insides of a very old and very big clock, with gigantic rusty gears that move extremely slowly. Well, it seems like, when it comes to expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), those gears are finally starting to turn, but slowly, of course, and with so much effort and compromise required for so little movement.

On the eve of OMB's release of its supplemental update of the FY 2007 budget, commonly known as the Mid-Session Review, many in the budget policy community awaits its revised estimates of the budget deficit, receipts, outlays, and budget authority for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. Some will point to the federal government's deficit of $123 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2007 as a sign of sustained progress toward a balanced budget, confirming the soundness of the Bush administration's fiscal policies.

Congress is back from its week-long July 4th vacation and will, among other things, try to get pass some more spending bills. This week in the House: Wednesday

• Transportation-HUD is in full Appropriations Committee
• Labor-HHS is in full Appropriations Committee

Thursday

• Commerce-Justice-Science is in full Appropriations Committee
• Energy-Water pork is divvied up by Appropriations Committee

Possible action sometime during the week

• Defense is in subcommittee
• Agriculture is in subcommittee

The federal government incurred a deficit of $123 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2007, CBO estimates, $83 billion less than the shortfall recorded during the same period in 2006. Revenues have risen by more than 7 percent, whereas outlays have grown by less than 3 percent. Both rates of growth are noticeably smaller than the rates of increase in fiscal years 2005 and 2006, which averaged about 13 percent for revenues and close to 8 percent for outlays. (click on CBO logo for report)