Appropriations Update

Following are some issues of interest that have risen during the FY 2004 appropriations process.

Following are some issues of interest that have risen during the FY 2004 appropriations process.

The status of all the FY 2004 appropriations bills can be found in a handy chart on the Thomas website. Some highlights:

  • Senate floor debate on the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education appropriations bill is expected to continue this week. On Friday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced an amendment to block proposed Bush administration regulations that would disqualify workers who are currently eligible for overtime pay. According to the Economic Policy Institute, these regulations would prohibit 8 million workers from overtime. (The Harkin amendment would retain a provision in the new rules that raises eligibility for overtime to workers making $425 per week, up from $155 per week.) Opponents of the new regulations have also pointed out that the new regulations would negatively affect "first responders," like EMTs, firefighters, and nurses. The administration responded that "first responders" would be exempted from the regulations. However, no changes have actually been made in the regulations to do so. The overtime pay issue is sure to be contentious. It is expected to come up for debate on Tuesday, Sept.9.
  • The House began debating the Transportation-Treasury and District of Columbia appropriations bills last week. An attempt to block Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) pre-certification requirements failed. Reps. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), Jim Cooper (D-TN), and Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-MI) sponsored an amendment to the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill to stop the Internal Revenue Service from implementing "pre-certification" of some EITC recipients. The appropriations bill included $100 million to accomplish the new EITC program. The amendment would have required that $75 million be used instead to strengthen compliance programs targeted at large and mid-sized business taxpayers. The amendment was defeated 219-192.
  • The New York Times reported on Friday that housing advocates are concerned that more than 100,000 low-income families could lose their Section 8 rent subsidies next year. Both the House-passed and Senate committee appropriations bill will not adequately cover existing vouchers if the Congressional Budget Office prediction (in its recent Budget and Economic Outlook Update) is correct. The update shows that the average cost of a housing voucher will rise from $6,575 to $7,068. According to the Post, this could result in a historical failure for Congress because it will be the first time the Section 8 voucher program will not renew all existing vouchers.
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