Over on our analysis side we've got a look at the latest news surrounding the highway funding minimum guarantee provisions for the re-authorization of TEA-21. Be sure to check it out.

Here's the list of all the Appropriations Subcommittee Deadlines in the House:

The House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and HUD has published the form they want filled-out for each earmark request in the fiscal 2006 cycle. Clients can go to the Analysis side to see the document itself.

Congress, governors and the new Secretary of Health and Human Services began negotiations yesterday on the future of Medicaid. Congress and the governors are trying to develop a relationship like the one that produced the changes in federal welfare law in 1996.

Sen. Grassley, (R-Iowa), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said that there needed to be some immediate savings in Medicaid and also enough flexibility for states to absorb the changes but it would be very difficult to reach agreement this year.

Medicaid spending has increased by 63% in the last five years, so that state and federal outlays together now total more than $300 billion a year. With no change in current law, the Congressional Budget Office predicts the cost will grow an average of 7.7% a year in the next decade.

Governors want to slow the growth of Medicaid, which they say is eating up state tax revenues they want to use for education.

Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services said the Bush administration wants to give states more freedom to decide who gets what benefits. At the same time, Sec. Leavitt said, the administration will crack down on what he described as abusive practices used by many states to maximize the federal Medicaid money they receive.

Governors fear that Congress, in an effort to reduce the federal deficit, will limit federal Medicaid spending without relieving the states of any of their legal or financial obligations.

President Bush proposes to cut $60 billion from projected federal Medicaid spending of $2.8 trillion in the next decade.

Leavitt has said that states should be free to provide less comprehensive benefits to “optional populations”, whom they are not required to cover.

This morning President Bush named John Negroponte to occupy the position of National Intelligence Director. Negroponte is currently serving as the Ambassador to Iraq.

The National Intelligence Director will have budgetary and operations control over the entire Intelligence Community, comprising several different agencies including the NSA, CIA, NRO and DIA. Bush named the current chief of the NSA, Gen. Michael Hayden, to be Negroponte's deputy at the new position.

Here's a list of all the new ranking members of the House Appropriations Subcommittees:

Today President Bush nominated acting FDA head Lester M. Crawford to permanently helm the agency.

Crawford has led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in some capacity for almost three years, a period that has seen a number of drug safety issues come to the forefront of public attention.

Today, Congress considers President Bush's request for approximately $82 billion in new funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, disaster relief for last December's tsunami and other foreign policy priorities. The new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee warned his fellow members not to load down the supplemental with unrelated items that could impede its passage.

However, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)'s spokesman said the leadership intents to attach to the supplemental House passed HR 418 that would make broad changes to U.S. laws on asylum and border security.

Another issue that could hold up the bill's progress is the Pentagon's share of the sending request.

The House Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday to discuss the supplemental. She will meet with the full Senate Appropriations Committee on February 17.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to meet with the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday and with the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on February 17.

The House Appropriations panel will likely mark up the supplemental the week of February 28 or March 7. The House would like to pass the measure before spring recess begins on March 18.

Senate Appropriations will likely follow the same schedule.

The House and Senate may be able to conduct negotiations during the spring recess and have a bill to the President by early April.