The Senate Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, a part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, passed its version of the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (HR 2829) by a party-line vote of 5 to 4. If you're still with me, this bill would do a couple important things. First, it limits funding for the IRS private debt collection program, but not so much that it would violate congressional procedures. A similar version of this limitation was struck from the House's bill on procedural grounds (See this Watcher article for more) . The Senate would not eliminate the program, presumably, but it could contain it so that it probably won't do much more damage. Second, it funds IRS operations at $11.1 billion, which is significantly higher level than last year, but lower than the $11.6 billion that the IRS Oversight Board recommended. Full funding of the IRS could reduce the tax gap, which would free up more revenue for program expansions and make the tax code more fair and progressive. And third, it would defund the part of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) that's in the executive branch. As you may recall, Vice President Cheney has been saying he's not really in the executive branch, and therefore isn't subject to an executive order that establishes some oversight over the OVP when it classifies information. This measure may make the OVP's operations more transparent to the public, and help Congress hold the Vice President accountable if he or anyone else in his office, besides Scooter Libby, has done anything wrong. Of course, this is only the subcommittee- the bill has a ways to go. But it's off to a pretty good start.