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Friday, June 09, 2006
House, Senate Reach Agreement on Supplemental
After reporting yesterday that the House and Senate had yet to reach a compromise on the supplemental spending bill, they did in fact reach one last night. The $94.5 billion bill to fund the military and hurricane relief also sets the budget spending cap for the Senate at $873 billion (the Senate, remember, had orignally passed a budget resolution allocating $16 billion more in funding, mostly for human needs programs). A number of Senators wanted to boost the cap to $880 billion, but were unable to do so because of resistance from the White House and the House leadership.
The majority was able to get over the budget jam by gaining the support of a couple of Democrats, specifically Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI). Inouye said in a statement that "I signed also because I was given assurances from [Appropriations Committee] Chairman Cochran that every effort would be made that $7 billion in advance funding would go to the Departments of Labor, and Health, and Human Services."
Now that the Senate knows the amount of money they have to work with -- even though it insufficiently funds human needs programs -- they can begin the process of setting 302(b) allocations.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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