House Set To Vote On Supplemental, Senate Panel To Mark Up

Thu. May 15, 2008


The House will consider a $183.7 billion emergency supplemental spending bill today that includes $162.5 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey Wednesday appeared before the House Rules Committee to discuss the strategy for bringing the bill to the floor, saying the bill consists of three amendments, including one that would provide $96.6 billion to fund the war for the rest of FY08 and $65.9 billion for FY09. Those figures are less than the $100 billion for FY08 and $66 billion for FY09 requested by President Bush.

The second amendment will include war policy rules, such as a provision prohibiting any agreement between the United States and the government of Iraq committing U.S. forces unless it is specifically authorized by Congress.

The third amendment includes an increase of veterans' education benefits. The veterans' education provision, estimated to cost more than $51 billion over 10 years, will be offset by a 0.5 percent tax on individuals with income of more than $500,000 and couples with income more than $1 million. The fate of such a tax increase in the Senate is unclear. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its version of the supplemental today.

The amendment includes an extension of unemployment insurance benefits and a moratorium on seven Medicaid regulations that would cut services to seniors, families, and those with disabilities as well as cut payments to safety net providers.

"What this process will do is let members have a clean shot, up or down, on whether they want to fund the war or whether they don't; whether they want to impose conditions on the war or whether they don't; and whether they want to add the other items such as unemployment extension and the extension of the GI bill," Obey said.

Obey and Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter said raising benefits for vets is the cost of going to war.

"We owe it to them," Slaughter said, adding that it will ultimately stimulate the economy. "More than 40,000 of them are coming back with life-altering wounds. I don't see how we can do too much for them."

The vehicle for the bill will be the FY08 Military Construction-VA Appropriations conference report that was not enacted. The use of the conference report prohibits attaching amendments to the bill and motions to recommit the measure. The legislative vehicle also allows Democratic leaders to bypass the Appropriations Committee.

Rules ranking member David Dreier called the process "outrageous."

"I have been on this committee for a long period of time and never before ... have we seen a war supplemental come before this committee that has not gone through the Appropriations Committee, without the opportunity for the minority to offer a motion to recommit, without any deliberation."

Dreyer also disparaged the offset the Democrats have proposed to pay for the vets' education provision of the bill.

"This is nothing more than a tax on small businesses," he said.

Dreier's comments came as the Tax Relief Coalition, a business interest group, called on lawmakers to oppose the provision.

"This so-called 'Patriot Tax Surcharge,' proposed to 'pay for' increased domestic spending added to the war supplemental appropriations bill, will fall most damagingly on America's small businesses, which pay taxes at individual tax rate," the group said in a letter. "These companies can ill afford the imposition of an additional tax burden as they struggle with our slowing economy."

House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis declined to discuss strategy or if House Republicans would use delay tactics to protest their dislike of the process, as they did last week.

by Humberto Sanchez

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