Omnibus Appropriations

Senate Continues to Struggle with Appropriations

Congress is preparing to pass a second continuing resolution (CR), as the first stopgap appropriations measure is set to expire on Oct. 31 and little progress has been made toward completing the remaining appropriations bills in the Senate. As the window of opportunity to pass all the appropriations bills individually continues to close, even the once-optimistic head of the Senate appropriations process has stated that Congress will likely have to use an omnibus spending bill to finish the work before the end of 2009.

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Congress Will Never Finish Appropriations

Oct 23, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

Appropriations Fail

Several stories this week from Capitol Hill are painting a bleak picture for the appropriations process this year. Just weeks ago, legislators thought that the process would only take until November, tops. Now it seems they'll be lucky to be done by the end of the year, and hopefully won't have to cram everything into an omnibus bill.

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Congress Attempts to Wrap up Appropriations

With the end of the fiscal year quickly approaching on Sept. 30, congressional leaders plan to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep government agencies funded through the end of October and allow additional time for appropriations work to continue. Although not a guarantee, the additional time should allow Congress to finish its appropriations work, preventing the need for an omnibus spending bill before the end of the year.

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Busy, Busy, Busy: An Appropriations Update

Sep 3, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*

An update on the appropriations process from the Hill today declares that, barring – in the words of one House Democratic aide – "a miracle," Congress will not pass all 12 spending bills before the end of the fiscal year, which is just a few short weeks away.

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Time for Recess: An August Appropriations Update

Aug 6, 2009 by Jocelyn Yin*

As the Senate finishes up a few important matters before the August recess, including a Cash-for-Clunkers vote, it's time to take a look at what else is going on in regular Senate business.  Unfortunately, the Senate is behind schedule, and it remains unlikely that all appropriations bills will be resolved prior to the start of the new fiscal year on Oct 1.

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Congress Strips Offending Tax Provision, Passes Omnibus Bill

Last week Congress reconvened for a second lame duck session. They succeeded in stripping controversial tax language from the bill and on Dec. 8 the President finally signed it, officially bringing the much delayed FY 2005 appropriations process to a close. The omnibus bill combines nine appropriations bills Congress was unable to finish working on before the end of the fiscal year, along with thousands of provisions and riders.

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Congress Raises Debt Limit, Fails To Pass Intelligence Bill

While members of Congress were unable to complete work on the omnibus spending bill or the intelligence bill during the lame-duck session, they did manage to complete their work on the debt limit.

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Congress Delays Spending Bill, Tackles Tax Return Provision

Although it was widely believed Congress would pass and the President would sign the $388 billion omnibus spending bill before Thanksgiving, it appears now the must-pass legislation will remain on hold until Dec. 6 when Congress will reconvene for a second lame-duck session to work on its passage. The bill, H.R. 4818, includes the nine remaining appropriations bills Congress left unfinished when the fiscal year ended, as well as numerous other riders and provisions.

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Spending Bill Will Remain On Hold Through Early December

Nov 29, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Although it was passed by both houses of Congress last weekend, the FY2005 spending bill will remain on hold and will not go to the President for a signature just yet. Problems arose last week when Senate staffers discovered that the omnibus spending bill included a tax-return provision that shouldn't have been in there. The provision, if passed, would have given appropriators and their "agents" unprecedented access U.S. taxpayers' returns.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers supported removing this provision from the omnibus spending bill, however a correcting resolution won't be passed until the House and Senate reconvene on December 6th and 7th, respectively, to fix the controversial rider. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made it clear that Democrats would not give unanimous consent to make the change on a voice vote, so the omnibus is pending until lawmakers return for a second lame-duck session. Pelosi argued that this extra time will give lawmakers a chance to read the bill, so that they know exactly what they are passing. Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the government while the omnibus pends; it expires December 8th.

It is clear that flaws in the budget process are responsible for this mess. Not only are nine of the thirteen appropriations bills being passed almost two months after the end of the fiscal year, but a highly detrimental provision almost slipped throught the cracks of a bill that is thousands and thousands of pages long. When lawmakers and their aides are given the opportunity to slip these types of riders and provisions into massive, must-pass legislation, it is not surprising that situations such as this arise. For more information on this issue click here and here.

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Tax Provision Holds Up Spending Bill

Nov 23, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Over the weekend Congress passed a $388 billion spending bill that included funding for the nine appropriations bills that remained unfinished when the fiscal year ended on September 30th. The massive omnibus bill was scheduled to go to the White House to be signed by the President early this week, however it was held up on Capitol Hill as lawmakers rushed to remove a provision from the bill that wasn't supposed to be there.

The provision, buried on page 1,162 of a 3,600 page document, would have given House and Senate Appropriations Committee staffers the power to enter IRS facilities and examine American's tax returns. This right is only currently available to the tax-writing committees of the two chambers. Embarrassed Republican lawmakers expressed surprise that this provision was included in the omnibus and blamed both the IRS and congressional staffers for incorporating it into the bill. Once it is removed, it will be sent to the White House.

The process of passing all unfinished spending bills in a massive omnibus is detrimental because it is more secretive and rushed than it would be if the spending bills were each passed separately, and on time. According to this informative Washington Post article, "When the measure was rushed to the floors of the two chambers on Saturday, few members had read it." Professor of Public Policy Allen Schick noted that the inclusion of this provision shows "how easy it is to put something in [an omnibus bill] without anybody else knowing about it."

Fortuntely this provision was caught before the bill was signed by the President. It does demonstrate, however, the problems of a process that allows this to take place. As Representative Ernest J. Istook (R-OK) stated, "We have a problem with how bills like this are put together." Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who serves as the ranking Democratic Member of the Senate Budget Committee, also comments on this issue in his floor statement on the subject, which you can read here.

For additional information, see this Washington Post article.

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