Looking beyond next week's election, Congress faces the difficult task of completing action on nine of the thirteen annual appropriation bills. Funding has been approved for Defense, Military Construction, Homeland Security, and the District of Columbia. Remaining federal programs are funded in a continuing resolution that expires November 20.
Congress is expected to return the week of November 15, and its highest priority is to package the remaining nine appropriation bills into an omnibus appropriation. However, that process is already daunting and could grow more complicated by the result of the election.
Before recessing in early October, the Senate added over $8 billion to its version of several appropriation bills. Reconciling such a huge difference in spending with the House will be difficult given the expected strong opposition from conservatives in both houses. The two retiring chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will be motivated to complete the legislation while they still have control of the committees. However a Democratic victory for the White House or control of the Senate might encourage Democrats to seek a delay in the final decisions until January or February.
Some bills have grown so controversial that committee leaders are considering moving a smaller omnibus bill to accommodate the less problematic bills, namely Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, State; Foreign Operations; Interior; and the Legislative Branch appropriations. The controversial bills--Energy and Water Development; Labor, HHS, Education; Transportation and Treasury; and VA, HUD--might be packaged as a separate omnibus appropriation or be considered individually. Such a process would undoubtedly extend the length of Congress's lame duck session.
Contrary to previous years, the Energy and Water Development bill is proving to be perhaps the most controversial. Funding for the proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada has stalled Senate action since June. The issue is so hotly contested in the presidential battleground state that Senate and House leaders are considering a year-long continuing resolution for all programs and projects funded under the legislation. Such an outcome would be a major disappointment for supporters of the numerous Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation projects funded under the legislation.
Progress on the Labor, HHS, Education bill is not only hampered by higher spending proposed by the Senate but also a veto threat over language included in both the House and Senate bills limiting new overtime pay regulations supported by the Bush Administration.
The White House has threatened to veto the Transportation and Treasury Appropriation because of bill language limiting the President's privatization plans and a Senate provision to stop enforcing the travel ban to Cuba. Major spending issues must also be determined because the House zeroed out funding for road and transit programs in a jurisdiction dispute with the authorizing committee, which has failed to reauthorize TEA-21.
As the election draws closer, speculation in Washington about a possible Kerry cabinet or a newly shaped Bush cabinet has begun. National Journal assembled a large list of possible nominees for both teams.
On the Bush side, there won't be a huge shake-up on the domestic side of the cabinet. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who was earlier rumored to be on the outs, now may stay on for another tour, or possibly attempt to move to the Department of Tranportation, where he originally wished to reside. If Thompson leaves, current deputy secretary Claude Allen or the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mark McClellan (brother of current White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan) may both vie for the top spot. On the transportation front, DOT Secretary Norm Mineta, the lone Democrat in the cabinet, may be moving on, which would free up his slot for current Labor Secretary Elaine Chao or current Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Others mentioned by National Journal include former deputy secretary Michael P. Jackson and current FAA chief Marion Blakely. On the education front, with Rod Paige likely stepping down, current White House education adviser Margaret Spellings is the front-runner for replacement. For labor, if Chao leaves, EEOC chair Cari Dominquez or George Salem (who was a part of Labor during the Reagan administration) are rumored to be interested.
The Kerry contingency brings a much higher amount of speculation, given that all of the spots would have to be filled with new faces. Starting with HHS, some names rumored to be in the mix include former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, both of whom have been campaigning vigorously for Kerry. Some names mentioned from the hill include retiring Senator Bob Graham (Florida) and Representative Dick Gephardt (Missouri), Minority Leader Tom Daschle (South Dakota) if he loses his re-election bid, Rep. Denise Majette (Georgia) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (New York). Outside of the Capitol, some possibilities are Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, Missouri governor Bob Holden, former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber, former representative Tom Downey (New York), or Jim Mongan, who currently heads a health care system in Massachusetts.
On the transportation side, several names were mentioned in the National Journal. From the hill, there's Representative James Oberstar (Minnesota), Mike Honda (California) and Earl Blumenauer (Oregon). Some Peyser clients were also mentioned, including Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Finally, former FAA chief Jane Garvey and Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm rounded out the list of possible DOT replacements for Mineta.
Kerry has promised to bring a labor leader in to head the Labor Department, with longtime labor friend Dick Gephardt included, as well as Richard Trunks, the current AFL-CIO secretary treasurer or Rep. Stephen Lynch (Massachusetts). Finally Harold Schaitberger, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which loudly backed Kerry from the beginning, has been mentioned as a strong contender for the top spot.
On the Housing and Urban Devlopment front, several mayors have been mentioned including Detroit's Dennis Archer, Boston's Tom Menino, Louisville's Jerry Abramson, former Seattle mayor Norm Rice, former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial and Atlanta's Shirley Franklin.
As the election day draws closer, jostling for position on both sides is expected to increase.
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced this week that there will be an additional 1 million does of the FluMist nasal spray flu vaccine. Medimmune, the maker of FluMist, notified the Secretary of the additional doses of the nasal spray vaccine. The Health and Human Services announcement can be accessed here.
Without action, the national debt will exceed the statutory limit within a month. Lawmakers must clear a debt-increase limit by the week of November 22, or the government will be forced to default on its obligations for the first time ever.
The current debt limit of $7.4 trillion was reached on October 14, according to Treasury Secretary John Snow. Since that time, Snow has made a number of accounting moves to keep the government debt below the limit, including a suspension of payments to certain federal retirement plans.
Congress has always found time to raise the debt limit in the past, although each time the process has been politically painful. By moving the increase to after the election, the leadership hopes to reduce pressure and make the process easier, although most appropriators will resist attempts to include the debt-measure into a pre-existing appropriations bill.