The latest emergency supplemental spending bill (H.R. 1268) was held up as House and Senate conferees struggled to reach an agreement regarding specifics for the bill before leaving town April 29 for the week-long May recess. The bill, which will mainly fund war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, was held up due to disagreements over provisions regarding immigration, border security funding, and earmarks for special projects and programs. In February, President Bush originally asked Congress to pass an $81.9 billion emergency bill to fund ongoing war operations. The president has recently received additional criticism, particularly from Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), over the practice of funding the wars through emergency supplemental bills, instead of through the traditional congressional budget process. The House passed its version of the emergency supplemental March 2. It closely resembled the president's request, including all but $800 million of what he had requested. The Senate, on the other hand, passed a bill appropriating extra funding to address growing security concerns along the Mexican border. Additional items in the Senate bill include:

• $276 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure adequate funding for critical investigative and detention programs
• $536 million of funding for the Department of Homeland Security to provide 1,050 border patrol agents, 250 immigration and customs investigators, 168 enforcement agents and detention officers, and 2,000 detention beds
• $65 million to help the federal judiciary deal with an increased caseload
• $100 million in loan guarantees for a coal program along with $24 million in other earmarks
• A provision offered by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) that would ensure federal employees in the National Guard and Reserves do not see a loss of pay.

House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has been pressuring his Senate counterpart, Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS), to drop many of the items not related to the war added to the Senate bill since a majority of House Republicans want the bill to resemble the president's request as closely as possible. Lewis' request is despite the inclusion in the House version of a controversial immigration bill that includes dangerous language allowing the Department of Homeland Security to waive all law when securing the nation's borders. As Congress takes a week-long recess, the two chambers remain approximately $800 million apart on border protection funds and without agreement on the House immigration rider -- the REAL ID Act. Final negotiations on the emergency supplemental bill will most likely be hammered out in private meetings between congressional GOP appropriations leaders and White House staff.