Omnibus Appropriations Bill More and More Likely

A story [2] in The Hill this morning relays an increasingly likely scenario in Congress: legislators will use an omnibus appropriations bill to finish spending work this year. The article cites the molasses-like speed at which the Senate has worked to pass its remaining appropriations bills. With the second stopgap funding measure set to expire on Dec. 18, and the Thanksgiving holiday intervening, the window of opportunity just to pass and conference an omnibus bill – let alone the four Senate appropriations bills that remain – is quickly closing.

Nothing says Congress can't pass another stopgap funding measure in December to allow appropriations work to continue, but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) has repeatedly stressed [3] that he wants spending work finished before the end of the year. Moreover, partisan rancor has virtually halted appropriations work in the upper chamber:

The trouble in the Senate was apparent this week during debate over the spending bill for military construction projects and veterans’ benefits. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV.) made the bill a leading floor priority, hoping to get it passed the same week as Veterans Day. But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) placed a hold on the bill, protesting funding for a caregiver program for wounded veterans that he said was duplicative of an existing program.

The Hill article notes that this will be the fifteenth year in a row that Congress has failed to pass its spending bills on time, and quotes a former budget aide as stating that it is too difficult for the legislature to finish appropriations in the timeframe available. With partisanship more often spilling over into traditionally less-partisan policy areas, is it time for Congress to revisit the architecture of the budget process?

Image by Flickr user Iantherev [4] used under a Creative Commons license.