On Saturday morning, the President signed an extension of a stopgap continuing resolution, making few changes to its destructive funding formula. It will last until February 15th. CQ ($) reports: The stopgap spending measure does not contain major deviations from the funding formula in the previous resolutions, despite lobbying by veterans’ groups for $3 billion in additional veterans’ health care money. The resolution calls for agencies that have not yet had their fiscal 2007 appropriations measures enacted to get the lowest of the House-passed, Senate-passed or previous year funding level.

Tracking inversely with income inequality over the past 20 years has been the rate of union membership among American workers. From a peak of 20.1% in 1983, the unionization rate has fallen to 12.5% in 2005 (the latest year for which the latest data are available). In addition to this correlation are empirical data which show that declining union membership explains 15-20% of the increase in income inequality for males.

In a stroke of good judgment, the House has decided that oversight of $38 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds is, in fact, something that should be conducted beyond next year. CQ (no link): The House by voice vote cleared S 4046, to extend the term of a special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction until 10 months after 80 percent of Iraq reconstruction funding has been spent -- a threshold expected to be reached in late 2008. A provision of the fiscal 2007 defense authorization law set Oct. 1, 2007, as the end of the inspector general's term.

As business draws to a close on the penultimate day of the 109th Congress, House and Senate negotiators have substantially agreed on the terms of a tax extenders package. Cost: $45 billion over 10 years. The package features a broader array of tax break extensions and modifications than had been part of the package in the reconciliation, pension, and trifecta bills earlier in the year (the largest element of which is the R&D credit, at $16.5 billion). Cost: $35.9 billion It also includes: