Appropriators set to expand ‘minibus’

Congressional appropriators are moving aggressively to wrap up the 2012 spending bills and will add two new elements to a package of bills under negotiation this week.

Spending bills for Homeland Security and the legislative branch will be added to a spending “minibus,” which heads to a House-Senate conference committee Thursday evening, House Appropriations Committee ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said.

The minibus containing funding for Agriculture, Transportation, Housing, Commerce and Justice passed the Senate on Tuesday. The Thursday conference committee meeting is the first time Congress has followed regular negotiation procedures on a spending bill since 2009.

{mosads}The bill will also become the vehicle for a temporary spending bill to keep the government open past Nov. 18. That continuing resolution should last until Christmas recess, committee sources said.

The conference committee negotiations are set to continue over next week’s House recess with the goal of having a conference report ready for introduction Nov. 14.

Congress so far has not passed any of the 12 annual appropriations bills, a month after fiscal 2012 started.

The top-line spending level of $1.043 trillion was set in the August debt-ceiling deal so negotiations are about how to shift funding around within that target, rather than a bruising ideological battle over large-scale deficit reduction.

The five bills being combined into this first minibus are much less controversial than the Labor, Health, Financial Services, and environment bills left outstanding. Those bills contain dozens of controversial policy riders including those defunding President Obama’s healthcare reform and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

The Homeland Security bill has the potential to resurrect a fight over disaster funding that almost shut down the government. The dispute appears to be resolved however with the GOP agreeing that the $1.43 trillion cap can be lifted, under the terms of the debt-ceiling deal, for true emergency spending. 

Reflecting the nature of the negotiation, neither side has appointed ideological bomb-throwers to the committee.

The Senate conferees are Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Tim Johnson (R-S.D.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)

The Democratic House conferees are Dicks, Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), John Olver (Mass.), Ed Pastor (Ariz.), David Price (N.C.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Chaka Fattah (Penn.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.).

The Republican House conferees are Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (Ky.), Reps. Bill Young (Fla.), Jerry Lewis (Calif.), Frank R. Wolf (Va.), Jack Kingston (Georgia), Tom Latham (Iowa), Robert Aderholt (Ala.), Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.), John Culberson (Texas),
John Carter (Texas), Jo Bonner (Ala.) and Steven LaTourette (Ohio).

A second minibus based on the Energy and Water bill is slated to come to the Senate floor soon.