The Washington Post had a good editorial today on the unfinished appropriations bills. ONE OF the basic functions of Congress is passing spending bills to fund the operations of government. Congress regularly fails to complete this work in a timely way, but the 109th Congress is set to leave on an especially negligent note. Unless something dramatic changes, it will limp to a close having completed work on just two spending bills for fiscal 2007, which began Oct. 1. The upshot is that, at best, the fiscal year will be nearly one-third over by the time the 110th Congress finishes the work left incomplete by the 109th. This is inexcusable. The House passed all but one spending bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported all the spending measures by July, the earliest that's been accomplished in 18 years. Then the full Senate punted. Only two bills -- covering defense spending and homeland security -- became law; one other, for military construction, won initial Senate passage, but the conference agreement worked out with the House is now stalled.