CONGRESS

The Week on the Hill

by Jill Smallen and Jason Dick

Sat. May 3, 2008


Domestic, War Budget Votes Ahead

Congressional Democrats this week moved toward agreement on a fiscal 2009 budget resolution and on a plan to advance $170 billion in Iraq war funding through the House and Senate before Memorial Day. After weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., found compromises to the thorniest differences between their two chambers' budget resolutions. Conrad agreed to push in the Senate for offsets to pay for a $70 billion fix to the alternative minimum tax slated for action later this year. In return, budget hawks in the House agreed to drop demands that the AMT bill move through the Senate via reconciliation procedures. Two Republican senators, whose support for the budget is crucial to Conrad, objected to reconciliation. Meanwhile, House Democrats prepared a strategy to advance the war funding measure. The plan would allow for three separate floor votes: on the $170 billion in war funding; on policy language promoting an end to the war; and on domestic spending add-ons, including expanded unemployment benefits. President Bush has threatened to veto the war funding bill if it includes nonsecurity spending. --Brian Friel/National Journal

Farm Bill Readied for Passage

The House-Senate farm bill conference was expected to resume on May 1, two days after key negotiators reached agreement on the legislation. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said they hoped that conferees would complete their work this week and bring the bill to the floors of their respective chambers next week. In the meantime, Congress was expected to pass a two-week extension of the 2002 farm bill through May 16. The negotiators' agreement included a new payment limitations plan that would gradually lower the level of income at which people would be ineligible to receive farm subsidies. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Charles (Chuck) Conner criticized the payment limits plan, saying it "is not reform and does not move Congress closer to a farm bill that the president would sign." But Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., met with President Bush about the bill late on April 30 and told him that the reforms were good. Peterson said this week that it would be "political suicide" for Bush to veto the farm bill. Harkin took a softer approach, saying he still believes that Congress can pass a bill that Bush will sign. Last week, negotiators agreed to use an extension of customs user fees that are collected for the inspection of imported goods to provide an additional $10 billion for the bill over 10 years. --Jerry Hagstrom/CongressDaily

FAA Measure Hits Turbulence

Senate debate slowed this week on legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration because of disagreements over airline pension payments and partisan clashes over limiting other amendments. The FAA bill includes a plan to modernize the nation's air traffic control system by transforming it from ground-based to satellite-based. The legislation would raise about $260 million to fund the changes, in part by increasing the fuel tax on general aviation from 21.8 cents per gallon to 36 cents. Controversy erupted on April 30 over an amendment, sponsored by Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would strip language prohibiting airlines from counting past contributions in properly funding their defined-benefit pension plans. Durbin and Hutchison said that the bill would hurt a handful of airlines that have kept their defined-benefit pension plans intact, while rewarding those that froze their plans as they grappled with bankruptcy. Finance Committee leaders countered that the change was necessary to keep all airlines equally competitive, but Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed a move to scrap the pension language. --Darren Goode/CongressDaily

Genetics Measure Wins Approval

After languishing in Congress for more than a decade, legislation making it illegal to deny insurance or employment to people based on their genetic information is headed to President Bush's desk. The House on May 1 voted 414-1 to pass the genetic nondiscrimination bill, following the Senate's 95-0 approval a week earlier. The White House indicated its support for the measure. The legislation bars employers or insurers from requiring genetic tests, with a few exceptions for law enforcement crime labs and the armed forces. The Senate twice passed the bill, in 2003 and 2005, with overwhelming majorities, but House GOP leaders were unwilling to take it up. Sponsors cleared the final barrier last month when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., lifted his objections after negotiating several last-minute changes. "Since no one is born with perfect genes, we are all potential victims of genetic discrimination," said House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the bill's sponsor. "This legislation marks the beginning of a new era in health care where a person's genetic information can no longer be used against them." --Fawn Johnson/CongressDaily