Looks like Congress will pass the defense appropriations bill ($$) before the campaign recess. It's the first appropriations bill Congress will have passed this year, and most likely one of only two they'll pass before the October 1st deadline for appropriations. It will also carry a continuing resolution that negotiators assured would get lots of support (though we haven't had a look at it yet, so who knows). Here's more: House and Senate appropriations conferees wrapped up negotiations on the $447.4 billion Defense spending bill during a brief meeting Thursday evening, readying the massive measure for a vote in both chambers next week. The appropriators also agreed to make the Defense bill a vehicle for a continuing resolution, a stopgap measure Congress must pass by the end of this month to continue funding for most government agencies at FY06 spending levels through Nov. 17. Congress expects to pass only the Defense and Homeland Security spending bills by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Appropriators had been opposed to attaching any measure to the Defense bill, amid fears that it could slow down the must-pass bill. But House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla., said he has received assurances from GOP leaders that it will be a "clean" continuing resolution "with no extraneous issues, no anomalies."