Friday, H. Con. Res. 376, the FY 2007 budget resolution was pulled from the floor. With discord between conservatives and moderates, the Republican leadership just could not get enough votes for passage. Some of the issues debated by Republican legislators involved, caps on emergency spending, reforms on earmarking language, line-item veto legislation and the establishment of a special "sunset" commission that would deliberate on possible program terminations. With the more moderate side calling for a two percent increase in funding above the FY 2006 level for domestic discretionary programs such as education, health care, housing and veterans' services. From the Democratic side of the aisle concerns were raised over the fact that the budget resolutions do not discuss any Iraq/Afghanistan spending. It does not include the cost of implementing the president's proposal to partially privatize Social Security (which is a whole additional issue), nor does it account fully for the costs of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts past 2010.
The clock is ticking and April 15th is the statutory deadline for conferencing and passing a final budget blueprint. Since Congress began a two-week recess yesterday, it is unlikely that they will make the April 15th deadline, so expect a flurry of budget related activity upon their return on April 24th and 25th.
So what happens if Congress fails to approve a budget conference report? If a final FY 2007 budget blueprint is not adopted by April 15th, the House Budget Committee will send the Appropriations Committee a discretionary spending ceiling that is consistent with the level from the most recently adopted budget resolution (meaning FY 2006). The FY 2006 amount was $866.04 billion. That is $7 billion below the president's request, which as was mentioned in an earlier Legislative Update involved drastic cuts to various programs of interest to our community.
The last time Congress failed to approve a final budget blueprint (2004), nine of eleven FY 2005 appropriations bills were wrapped into a huge omnibus bill. If that were to happen, expect a lot of quickly changing information and vicious negotiations.
ACB is monitoring the situation and will keep you updated.
Day Al-Mohamed
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
American Council of the Blind
1155 15th St. NW
Washington DC 20005
Tel. 202-467-5081
dalmohamed@acb.org