Key Spending Bills Signed

President Bush has signed into law the fiscal 2007 appropriations measures for the Defense Department (P.L. 109-289) and the Department of Homeland Security (P.L. 109-295), the only two of the regular spending bills for this fiscal year that have reached final enactment. Despite objections from the White House, both measures include certain restrictions on contracting out at those departments and both carry limits on funding for the new personnel systems at each. Further restrictions on contracting out are in several other pending appropriations measures that Congress won’t finalize until its post-election session.