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)

Congressional Democrats, still smarting from their perceived capitulation in May to President Bush on ending the war on Iraq, are serving notice that their next stand will come during the debate next month on H.R. 1585, the half-a-trillion-dollar Defense Department FY 2008 reauthorization bill. According to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) H.R. 1585 will feature "timelines, parameters, accountability, and a pathway" to remove U.S. fighting men and women from Iraq.

The House will soon pass the Financial Services/General Government appropriations (HR 2829). Its total funding should comes under the Presidents request, though the President has threatened a veto anyway, conditional on including provisions regarding abortion and Cuba. The media will probably focus on the fact that the bill may defund the OVP's office- in response to the OVP's clumsy claims, which we covered in the Watcher, that it is not a part of the executive branch, and therefore is not subject to disclosure requirements that apply to that branch.