Today the House Budget Committee passed a $53.9 billion reconciliation bill to cut spending. The Committee approved the bill 21-16, and it will most likely go to the floor next week. The House approved a bill even though it contains a provision - long favored by conservatives - to split in half the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco, CA. The language was inserted by Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), and was only discovered this morning by ranking member John Spratt (D-SC). The provision will most likely run into stiff opposition in the Senate, and if it survives conference it could be subject to the Byrd Rule point of order on extraneous provisions, which would take 60 votes to overturn. Powerful Republicans have tried to insert the measure into omnibus budget bills in the past, and have not succeeded.