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The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter
on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations.
It is published every other week while Congress is in session.
Article from the October 1, 2007 edition
of the CHN Human Needs
Report:
As expected, the House and Senate this week enacted an extension (called a “continuing resolution” or CR) that funds programs through November 16th. The CR will buy time for the President and Congress to negotiate their differences in funding levels for annually appropriated discretionary programs as well as mandatory programs like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that were set to expire on September 30. (See 9/17/07 HNR article for details on the challenges to reaching agreement: http://www.chn.org/humanneeds/070914a.html)
It is not unusual for Congress to enact CR’s. Two or fewer appropriations bills have been signed into law by October 1st in each of the last six years. The last time the appropriations process was completed when the fiscal year began was in 1996. The CR passed the House 404-14, and the Senate by 94-1. The bill continues funding at FY’07 levels for all programs that need annual appropriations as well as programs outside of that process, such as SCHIP, programs for air traffic controllers and manufacturing workers affected by international trade. The CR also provides funds to continue operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House has passed all 12 appropriations bills. The Senate has passed only 4 of the bills on the Senate floor, but the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved all of them. Two more spending bills are scheduled for Senate floor votes in the week of October 1, Commerce-Justice-Science and Defense. Labor-HHS-Education is expected to come up after the Columbus Day recess.
It is not necessary for the Senate to pass the remaining bills for negotiations to move forward with the House. The biggest obstacle is the President, who insists he will veto individual bills or bill packages that exceed his requested levels. The House and Senate bills combined exceed the President’s total request of $933 billion by $23 billion. The President’s total represents a cut over FY ’07 levels. On a separate track, congressional leaders will be negotiating with the President on reauthorizing the SCHIP program. (See HNR article in this edition.)
It is not clear what strategy Democratic leaders will use to send appropriations bills to the President. In the last few days, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has suggested that Congress may send the President several individual bills that he has threatened to veto. Candidates for such a strategy include Commerce-Justice-Science, which includes higher levels for law enforcement than the President proposed, and Transportation-Housing-Urban Development, because of public interest in repairing roads and bridges after the recent Minnesota bridge collapse. If this strategy prevails, human needs advocates will have to work hard to highlight support for low-income housing, juvenile justice and other provisions with special importance for low-income people in these bills.
Ultimately Congress will likely send some bills packaged together, grouping a bill the President wants to sign (such as Defense) with others he’s threatened to veto (such as Labor-HHS-Education). While such a package may not prevent a veto, it might garner support from enough members of Congress for a successful override, increasing the possibility of modest increases in domestic programs, reversing the cuts in recent years that have occurred in many of the human needs programs critical to low-income families.
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