Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved approved Chairman Thad Cochran's (R-Mississippi) allocations of $842 billion in discretionary funds among the 12 subcommittees.

The 302(b) allocations depart significantly from President Bush's own budget request for FY 2006 and the spending plans developed by the House. In particular, Cochran's plan calls for moving billions from the Defense side to domestic programs, which are slated for deep cuts in the president's budget.

While the shifts Cochran has proposed are not expected to become law, Senate appropriators are hoping the plan will help them avoid some early battles over domestic program cuts that could threaten Republican leaders' goal of avoiding an omnibus for the first time in years.

According to the committee, the allocations for the 12 bills will be as follows:

Agriculture at $17.3 billion, up from Bush's $16.9 billion;

Commerce-Justice-State at $48.6 billion, up from Bush's $47.3 billion;

Defense at $400.7 billion, down from Bush's $407.7 billion;

District of Columbia at $593 million, up from Bush's $573 million;

Energy and Water at $31.2 billion, up from Bush's $29.7 billion;

Homeland Security at $30.8 billion, up from Bush's $29.6 billion;

Interior at $26.2 billion, up from Bush's $25.7 billion;

Labor and Health and Human Services at $141.3 billion, the same level as Bush proposed;

Legislative Branch at $3.9 billion, down from Bush's $4 billion;

Military Construction/Veterans Affairs at $44.4 billion, up from Bush's $43.1 billion;

State-Foreign Operations at $31.7 billion, down from Bush's $32.7 billion; and

Transportation-Treasury-HUD at $65.4 billion, up from Bush's $63.1 billion.