With much of the appropriations work still left to do, the Congress has been creeping along with their annual appropriations work. To date, only two of the 13 bills have made it to conference. The likelihood of an omnibus bill, a lame duck session, and/or a continuing resolution seems to be growing.

Among the developments:

• After voting in favor of a $2.9 billion amendment providing emergency drought disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers, the Senate passed the FY 2005 Homeland Security spending bill (H.R. 4567). The bill is now ready to go to conference with the House, which passed its version of the bill in June.
• Following the example set by the House, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted in favor of blocking funding for the Labor Department to implement recent changes to overtime pay regulations. The vote on the Amendment, which was sponsored by Tom Harkin (D-IA), passed 16-13. (See related story.)
• Debate on the Transportation-Treasury bill is expected in the House this week, as is debate in the Senate on the Legislative Branch bill. The Senate hopes to have a vote on the Military Construction bill on Sept. 20.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the $19.5 billion Foreign Operations bill, increasing funding by $120 million from FY 2004. During the markup, the panel chose to adopt the Leahy Amendment to transfer $150 million worth of humanitarian aid from Iraq reconstruction funds to Darfur, in the Sudan. Also, the bill approved by the committee reduced aid to the administration's Millennium Challenge Corp. by more than half; approving $1.12 billion as opposed to the $2.5 billion requested. In its version of the bill, the House also provided less funding for the Millennium Challenge Corp. than the administration had hoped to see.