CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 16, 2011 – 7:57 p.m.
As ‘Minibus’ Stalls, It’s All Aboard the Omnibus
By Kerry Young and Niels Lesniewski, CQ Staff
With the apparent collapse of the Senate leadership strategy of packaging overdue spending bills in small bundles, the top House appropriator is preparing to wrap the remaining bills into a single measure.
During a meeting of the Rules Committee on Wednesday, Appropriations Chairman
Congress “will have to put together a rest of the bus,” Rogers said.
The chairman’s comments came as the Rules panel debated procedures for House action on a three-bill “minibus” (
A conference committee completed work on the minibus earlier this week, and the House is expected to adopt the conference agreement on Thursday — perhaps by a close margin.
The Senate is expected to clear the bill as well before adjourning for a week-long Thanksgiving break.
House Republican leaders worked Wednesday to win support for the minibus, although Democrats appeared confident their side would deliver the needed votes.
Some Republicans object to the overall spending levels and to a provision that would increase the size of mortgages the Federal Housing Administration may insure.
Benishek had been uncommitted until late Wednesday, when he said he will back the measure. “It’s a compromise,” he said. “We need to move forward.”
Strategy Falters
Senate Majority Leader
But Reid ran into trouble with his second minibus (
As ‘Minibus’ Stalls, It’s All Aboard the Omnibus
Several senators blocked Reid’s unanimous consent request to combine the three bills. And although the Senate continued to debate the Energy-Water bill on Wednesday, a list of unresolved amendments to it remained and Reid decided to set the measure aside in favor of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill (
No Big ‘CR’
Rogers said he is determined to finish the year’s appropriations cycle with new spending laws, and not repeat the fiscal 2011 experience, when most appropriations were settled through a continuing resolution (PL 112-36).
“There will not be a big CR,” Rogers said.
The conference report on the minibus does include a stopgap continuing resolution to keep the government running through Dec. 16 and allow Congress time to finish the remaining appropriations. The stopgap CR that is currently keeping the government operational (PL 112-36) expires Nov. 18.
Appropriators will have about two weeks to pull the omnibus together after the Thanksgiving recess. A House rule requires a bill’s text to be available three days before it comes to a vote. That means the measure might need to be posted by Dec. 13 in order to be passed before the expiration of the pending CR.
Rogers had long been skeptical of the strategy pursued by Reid and Senate Minority Leader
The House chairman says he shares the distaste of many lawmakers for giant spending bills, but he said publicly as early as September that he intended to use a single omnibus to expedite fiscal 2012 appropriations.
The omnibus approach spares House Republican leaders from scheduling difficult spending votes that would divide their majority. And in the case of both the minibus and a future omnibus, GOP leaders are counting on votes for passage from Democrats, because many conservative GOP members are likely to oppose the measures.
Bipartisan cooperation had also been key to the Senate’s minibus strategy. But the difficulty of containing the number of amendments on appropriations bills in the Senate — and the controversial nature of many of those amendments — made the minibus strategy problematic.
Senate Majority Whip
Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.