New rules may help GOP to stall spending omnibus

New rules have given Senate Republicans so much power that it will be more difficult to pass an omnibus spending bill than in previous years, appropriations veterans say.

Democrats stand to lose billions of dollars in extra spending on social programs, and their most vulnerable members may miss out on millions in pork for their districts.

{mosads}These dire outcomes depend on whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rallies Republicans to stand with fiscal conservatives such as Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to scuttle an omnibus or tacitly endorses it instead.

Cooperating with Democrats on an omnibus adding an extra $11 billion to the administration’s request could put President Bush in a difficult position.

Democrats have pressured Bush by offering to cut extra spending in half. They are to hold a Senate-House conference on the slimmed-down package on Dec. 11 and send it to Bush by Dec. 14, said a Senate aide.

Bush would face the prospect of vetoing funds for veterans by nixing money for a slew of other popular programs shortly before Christmas. He has pledged to reject Democratic spending bills that exceed his budget proposal, but many Democrats predict that his rigid stance will hurt him politically. Most voters would find Bush’s veto of $11 billion more for education, healthcare, and other domestic programs unreasonable, particularly against estimated war costs of $1.3 trillion between 2002 and 2008, Democrats say.

Democrats will lose leverage if they cannot get an omnibus through the Senate, combining bills the president wants (such as the Military Construction bill) with ones he dislikes.

Appropriations experts say Democrats will find it hard to put a package together because of new rules that Senate Republicans successfully exploited recently.

Republicans used new ethics rules this month to block Democratic effort to pass the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS) and Military Construction spending bills as a package. Democrats had hoped to pressure Bush on the labor bill, which funds many of their top priorities, by linking it to the veterans money bill.

That strategy fell apart when Republicans used a new Senate rule passed this year to split the bills.

It allowed Bush to veto the labor and health bill, and Democrats are holding back the military construction legislation in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip next month.

The new rules helped Republicans give their president an easy veto and also sounded a warning to Democrats for the rest of the year.

“It makes it harder for Democrats to package things in a way that will let them get their work done,” said Scott Lilly, a former senior staffer on the House Appropriations Committee who is now at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

But the difficulty of packaging bills would also hurt Republicans, Lilly said.

“If Republicans in the Senate continue to insist on it, they’re going to end up in a situation where a lot of the things they’ve put in these bills are lost. All of these appropriations bills are done on a bipartisan basis.”

Former Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Calif.), a onetime House appropriator who still tracks the congressional spending process, said the new rule would have a major impact on deliberations over an omnibus.

“It gives the minority a tremendous amount of power,” said Fazio. “It will be a key question on the debate about an omnibus. A lot of stuff is jammed in [an omnibus] because [there’s] a need to get something done and not a lot of time left…If you don’t have unanimous consent you’re going to be in trouble.”

Since conservatives are expected to object, McConnell and other GOP leaders must decide which way to swing the conference.

With appropriations bills funding some Republican priorities, it could be difficult for McConnell to rally his conference to sustain procedural objections to an omnibus combining 10 bills on the back of the military construction bill.

Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman, said Democrats should stop playing games and pass the military bill without weighing it down with other spending legislation exceeding the president’s budget.

“The way they do it is by cooperating and not bulking up the bills,” said Stewart.  “The ‘veterans-milcon’ bill passed 73 days ago and is sitting on the shelf. Democrats can get things done by doing things and not doing them in crafty political ways that get passed here and vetoed by the president.”

Getting an omnibus through Congress could allow Democrats to enact spending decisions they penned into an array of bills. Without an omnibus, Democrats would have little time to send Bush all the bills individually. The dwindling number of work days and Bush’s veto threats mean many programs would likely be funded at 2007 levels.

That would be a big disappointment for vulnerable Democrats fighting for reelection next year. Democratic leaders have packed the bills with project spending to help their endangered colleagues.

The Labor-HHS bill includes 157 projects worth $36 million for Frontline Democrats at greatest electoral risk, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

James Dyer, a former staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, said Democrats could bypass the so-called Rule 28 objection to an omnibus by creating a new mega-spending package instead of combining existing appropriations conference reports. But that would face other obstacles. It would be subject to amendment on the Senate floor.