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Thursday, June 08, 2006
Iraq Supplemental Delayed Over Discretionary Cap Disputes
The FY 2006 emergency supplemental bill to fund war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was held up this afternoon because of a dispute over where the Senate should set the discretionary spending limits for FY 2007 appropriations bills. According to CQ Today, a spokeswoman for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) "confirmed that a resolution 'deeming' a Senate fiscal 2007 spending cap had not been resolved. She said it would be difficult to reach agreement on a final bill without a deeming resolution attached to it."
This means that Congress will likely be waiting until next week to pass their supplemental (HR 4939). Because the two chambers of Congress failed to reach agreement on a budget resolution (which includes a cap on discretionary spending), Senate appropriators want to use the supplemental to "deem" a limit for their spending bills. Without a cap they would be unable to assign specific funding allocations for each spending bill.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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