8 of 12 of Them Defy Bush's Veto Threats Tomorrow, the House Appropriations Committee is expected to approve the twelve subcommittee spending allocation caps for FY 08 set out today by Committee chair Rep. David Obey (D-WI). Eight of these twelve exceed the amounts requested by the president last February. Although Bush has threatened to veto any bill that exceeds his request, the House Appropriations Committee allocation indicates that Democrats are prepared to challenge him on several spending bills, some of which fund highly popular programs and might be politically perilous to veto. Per Congress Daily ($), these allocations will be as follows (those exceeding the Bush requests are in CAPS below):

• AGRICULTURE: $18.8 billion; Bush: $17.8 billion; current: $17.7 billion
• COMMERCE-JUSTICE-SCIENCE: $53.6 billion; Bush: $51.2 billion; current: $50.3 billion
• Defense: $459.3 billion; Bush: $462.9 billion; current: $419.6 billion
• ENERGY AND WATER: $31.6 billion; Bush: $30.5 billion; current: $30.3 billion
• Financial Services and General Govt.: $21 billion; Bush: $21.7 billion; current: $19.5 billion
• HOMELAND SECURITY: $36.3 billion; Bush: $34.2 billion; current: $31.9 billion
• INTERIOR-ENVIRONMENT: $27.6 billion; Bush: $25.7 billion; current: $26.4 billion
• LABOR-HHS: $151.1 billion; Bush: $140.9 billion; current: $144.5 billion
• Legislative Branch: $4 billion; Bush: $4.3 billion; current: $3.8 billion
• MILITARY CONSTRUCTION-VA: $64.7 billion; Bush: $60.7 billion; current: $49.8 billion
• State-Foreign Operations: $34.2 billion; Bush: $34.9 billion; current: $31.3 billion
• TRANSPORTATION-HUD: $50.7 billion; Bush: $47.96 billion; current: $47.5 billion