Mapping out the Post-Veto Supplemental Landscape President George W. Bush and Congress are continuing their power struggle over policies related to the war in Iraq, with a war funding bill containing a "goal" timeline for withdrawal of soldiers headed for an almost certain veto. Senate Still Without Strong Earmark Disclosure ProvisionsWhile the House passed earmark disclosure provisions in its initial rules package in January, a stronger proposal for earmark disclosure passed by the Senate as part of a larger lobbying and ethics reform bill has languished for months.

As we reported last Friuday, the House Agriculture Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on security breaches at the Department of Agriculture. This hearing is a follow-up to reports earlier in April of personally identifiable information being contained within USDA data that is widely available on the internet. This security issue was discovered on April 13 by a user of our FedSpending.org website.

Congress' focus on the emergency war spending supplemental has come at the cost of momentum on the FY 2008 budget resolution. House Appropriations subcommittee chairs hope to meet the goal set by the Democratic leadership of having all 12 annual appropriations bills adopted by the July 4 recess, leaving the Senate and conference committees adequate time to complete the bills by Oct. 1, the start of FY 2008. So, while they wait for a vote on the conference committee budget resolution, the Appropriations chairs are starting in on their spending bills. This creates a problem.