A month after the close of Fiscal year 2005, the Senate has finally completed work on all appropriations bills funding discretionary spending in 2006 after wrapping up the Labor/Health and Human Services bill last week. Conference negotiations with the House, however, remain on eight of the 11 spending bills, and time is running out for Congress to complete the appropriations bills before the stark continuing resolution currently funding the federal government expires on Nov. 18. While it is not rare for Congress to miss its appropriations deadline, this year's delays are especially contentious given that much of the congressional leadership's energies over the past month have been spent working on reconciliation bills that lack fiscal responsibility, compassion and, perhaps most importantly, necessity. Last April when Congress voted on and passed the budget resolution for Fiscal year 2006 (FY06), they chose to include in the resolution reconciliation instructions aimed at cutting taxes (by $70 billion) and entitlement spending (by $35 billion). Reconciliation is a two-step process to change current law in order to bring revenue, spending, and debt-limit levels in line with the policies of the annual budget resolution. The first step is to instruct committees to find savings to achieve the objectives in the budget resolution. The committees provide their recommendations to the Budget Committees, which then begin the second step. The second step involves consideration of the reconciliation legislation under expedited rules that limit the amount of time for debating the legislation, the type of amendments that can be offered, and, in the Senate, prevent filibusters. Unlike the budget resolution, the reconciliation legislation must be signed by the president to become law. While reconciliation is usually used to lower the deficit, this year the reconciliation instructions will actually increase the deficit by $35 billion. Anyone following the reconciliation process over the past six weeks has seen that it has been anything but expedited. Since Hurricane Katrina, many Republicans, particularly House conservatives, have been pushing the envelope to increase the entitlement cuts done under reconciliation by $15 billion (for a total of $50 billion) before final passage. In the meantime, the appropriations process languishes. While all work has been completed on the House and Senate floors only two bills out of 11 have been signed into law by the president. FY06 programs, which began one month ago, have not been funded at an amount agreed to by both chambers in conference. In fact the continuing resolution passed to keep the government afloat is drastically under-funding many programs and services. Congress' role as appropriators of all public funds -- arguably its most important duty -- has not always been completed by the stated deadline. When this occurs, lawmakers pass a continuing resolution (such as the resolution passed this year), until they can complete all spending bills or, as a last resort, combine bills together in one massive omnibus bill. This year it is very likely that Congress will serve up yet another omnibus, with the likelihood of conferees completing work on all bills in the next few weeks being slim at best. An omnibus bill this year, as with ones before it, promises to be large and so complex that many lawmakers may hardly know what they are voting on. Omnibus bills are bad legislative practice: they remove transparency and accountability from the appropriations process and usually lead to fiscal irresponsibility. Could this year's continuing resolution and the likely omnibus have been avoided if congressional leaders were not so wrapped up in cutting funding for low-income supports to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy? It is certainly possible as reconciliation has received the lion's share of Congress' attention this year, while the appropriations process has floundered. Congress' priorities need to shift away from a misguided, far-right agenda back to completing the core functions for which it is responsible in a way indicative of concern for both the direction of our nation and the most vulnerable Americans.