Key Bills Cool Their Heels

Fiscal year 2004 begins today (October 1) with several key spending measures still idling in Congress, including the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill that covers federal employees generally and the Defense Department authorization bill that will be the vehicle for substantial changes in personnel policies there and that will set precedent for similar changes elsewhere. Both the House and Senate versions of the Transportation-Treasury bill specify a 4.1 percent average general schedule raise, but while the House has passed its version (HR-2989), the Senate version (S-1589) is stuck in a logjam of appropriations and other bills. The White House has is unhappy with the raise amount and has threatened a veto if the final version contains House language barring use of revised contracting-out guidelines that were issued in the spring. Several other pending appropriations bills also contain restrictions on contracting-out at various agencies. Rather than attempt to get all the needed spending bills enacted individually, Congress may turn to a technique it has used often in the past, bundling several of them as one package-a strategy that makes it harder for the White House to use its veto power. Under a special short-term funding measure, agencies will continue to operate through the end of October at fiscal 2003 levels.