By Frances Symes, CQ Staff

Appropriators in both parties say plans for a nine-bill package are on track, suggesting that a last-minute bid by conservative Republicans to reduce the overall spending ceiling has not gained traction.

Final House-Senate versions of many of the nine bills were said to be close to completion last week, and appropriators expressed hope that the package will see floor action before the current continuing resolution (PL 112-55) expires Dec. 16.

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said he does not “see a crisis” ahead. “Cooler heads need to prevail, and I think they will,” Rogers said.

The White House warned last week that a year-end appropriations package could be derailed, and a partial government shutdown is possible, if Republicans try to reduce the spending ceiling agreed to as part of last summer’s debt limit law (PL 112-25), or if the GOP tries to load the spending bills with conservative policy provisions.

“If congressional Republicans want to avoid a veto and are serious about avoiding a costly government shutdown and preventing the uncertainty that a shutdown would bring to our markets and our economy, they will stop attempting to relitigate the August agreement and abandon ideological stunts,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a Dec. 1 blog posting.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., suggested on Dec. 2 that may not be an issue. Republicans are “operating within the context of the Budget Control Act,” including the $1.043 trillion allocation for fiscal 2012 discretionary appropriations and allowances for up to $11 billion more in emergency spending, Cantor said on the House floor.

“The amount of spending reductions is not enough for many of us on our side of the aisle and perhaps may not be enough or too much on [the Democratic] side of the aisle, but we are operating under the deal that was agreed upon,” he said.

Jacob J. Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has repeatedly expressed concern about policy provisions or “riders” on spending bills. He told reporters Dec. 2 he is not convinced that Republicans have abandoned the idea of using “extreme provisions” in spending bills to advance their legislative agenda.

The White House is particularly worried about riders intended to eliminate or reduce money for administration priorities, including implementation of the 2010 health care (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) and financial regulatory (PL 111-203) laws, environmental regulation and the Race to the Top education initiative.

However, James P. Moran of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said last week he believes a compromise is within reach. A Republican member of that panel, Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio, said his colleagues will be willing to drop many of the policy provisions. “We have 41 issues in that bill, but we know that we aren’t going to come up with 41 issues,” he said. “We’re going to target the four or five that we think are reasonable, sustainable, winnable, and that’s where we’re going to go.”

Labor-HHS-Education

Appropriators say that, as is often the case, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (HR 3070, S 1599) will be the most difficult to resolve. In addition to the usual disagreements about money for social programs and lightning rod policy issues such as reproductive services, neither party is willing to concede on appropriations for provisions of the health care overhaul.

“Funding of Obamacare” is one of the biggest issues in the negotiations, said Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., chairman of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee.