Tomorrow, the U.S. House is expected to reinstate PAYGO budgeting rules -- with teeth. Under the House rule, any bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report affecting direct spending and revenues have the net effect of increasing the deficit or reducing the surplus for either the period comprising the current fiscal year and the five or ten following fiscal years will be out of order. We have wondered and worried how that would square with House Ways & Means chair Charlie Rangel's imperative, fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), among other policy priorities.

BNA Money and Politics (subscription required) reports that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the congressional sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in regards to the federal court ruling in the Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. (WRTL) case. It was ruled that the group had the constitutional right to sponsor three grassroots lobbying advertisements during the 2004 election. WRTL filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to expedite consideration of the FEC's appeal. Both sides want the Supreme Court to review the case quickly.

In a move that will streamline the budget-making process, House and Senate Appropriations chairs will realign the jurisdictions of appropriations subcommittees. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced today that this new subcommittee configuration will facilitate the completion of all 2008 spending measures by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1 - a feat which hasn’t been accomplished since 1994. CQ ($):

Reuters reports that aid worker violence reached a high in 2006 with 90 major incidences. Over 40 percent took place in Sudan. The article addresses the need for non-governmental organizations to be recognized as neutral and impartial, regardless of skin color. "It's not just that aid workers are associated with political actors; they are political actors. In conflict situations, attacking them is seen as an effective way of controlling the local population."