Democrats Plan to Introduce Domestic Supplemental Spending Bill

June 25, 2008

A long-awaited war funding bill has yet to reach President Bush’s desk, but Democrats are already talking about a second supplemental spending measure focused on domestic needs.

The war spending bill would provide $162 billion for the Defense Department for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the House jettisoned much of the $10 billion in additional domestic spending that the Senate had included in an earlier version of the bill.

Despite some grumbling by senators about the deal struck among House Democrats, Republicans and the White House, the Senate is expected to take up the bill tomorrow and clear it for the President’s signature before adjourning tomorrow night for the July Fourth recess.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped the chamber would take up a new bill in July focused on domestic spending.

Sen. Reid is starting to plan another supplemental appropriations bill to address domestic spending, specifically the $10 billion that was removed in the DoD  supplemental.  Among the candidates for inclusion in a second supplemental are funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), so-called Byrne law enforcement grants, the Community Oriented Policing Services program and additional aid for Hurricane Katrina recovery.

The earlier Senate version of the war spending bill included $1 billion for LIHEAP and $490 million for Byrne grants before the House stripped out the proposed funding.

Katrina Aid

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., is seeking to restore a number of Katrina-related items that had been included in the Senate version of the bill.

While both versions included $5.8 billion for levees in New Orleans, the Senate had required a state cost share of $1.3 billion, to be paid back within 30 years. The House increased that cost share in the current version of the bill to $1.5 billion, with repayment in three years.

The Senate’s earlier bill also would have provided $50 million for crime prevention and $157 million for six hospitals, both for Louisiana, as well as $75 million to speed the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. All were stripped out.

Recent flooding in the Midwest appears to be another likely target of funds in a second supplemental spending bill. The supplemental that the Senate is slated to take up would provide $2.65 billion in such assistance, but Midwestern lawmakers are likely to press for more as more extensive damage assessments become available.

Infrastructure and Energy

Infrastructure also could see a boost. The Senate version would have provided $451 million for the Federal Highway Administration’s emergency relief program; none of the funds are in the bill now.

Even though the House did not include items such as LIHEAP in its version of the bill, many House lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — would support additional money, including David R. Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who helped create the program.

Support in the Senate for the energy assistance also is considerable. The Senate adopted an amendment that included the LIHEAP money, as well as an expanded veterans’ benefit and an extension of unemployment insurance, by a vote of 75-22.

Democrats have sought to highlight their economic policy differences with Bush and Republicans, and a second supplemental could provide them another vehicle to do so.