Last week before leaving town for another weeklong recess, the Senate approved its Fiscal year 2007 budget resolution. The resolution is a significant departure from President Bush's proposed budget submitted earlier this year, dropping the president's Medicare cuts, not extending tax cuts, and adding over $16 billion in discretionary spending above the president's request. Despite these changes that make it more election-friendly for Senate incumbents, the budget continues to fall short of the sound budget policy desperately needed to stem the growth of deficits. The resolution was approved 51 - 49, with one Democrat voting with Senate Republicans and five GOP members crossing party lines to vote against the resolution. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the lone Democrat supporter of the resolution, voted for the budget, according to Congressional Quarterly, in exchange for language giving her state "a sizable chunk of federal revenue from ANWR leases, offshore oil and gas leases and the federal auction of broadcast frequencies that television stations will hand back when they switch to digital telecasts." Landrieu has been on a crusade to increase spending for reconstruction of levees and wetland restoration along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Republicans who voted against the resolution, drawn from the handful of GOP members that place logic over party affiliation, believed the budget did not represent the right priorities and lacked fiscal discipline by not addressing the dwindling tax base. These Senators included Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Norm Coleman (R-MN), and Mike DeWine (R-OH). One notable surprise was Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who voted against the bill because he felt it did not cut enough spending. The Senate considered 33 amendments over 50 hours of debate throughout last week, finally approving nine of the amendments. In total, the Senate approved over $16 billion in additional discretionary spending on a variety of programs including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), education and job training programs, veteran's health benefits, community development, and maritime security. The Senate also rejected two separate amendments restricting spending, including capping discretionary spending and another round of cuts to entitlement programs, as the president proposed in his budget. Sen. James Inhofe's (R-OK) amendment to cap spending at 2006 levels for the next two years was rejected 35 - 62, and Sen. John Cornyn's (R-TX) amendment to include reconciliation provisions to cut mandatory spending failed 43 - 57. But perhaps the most important amendment offered was Sen. Kent Conrad's (D-ND) pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) amendment that would have reinstated expired rules requiring both tax cuts and entitlement spending increases to be deficit-neutral. When in place in the 1990s, the rules successfully forced Congress to enact responsible budget and tax policies that reduced deficits and led to a short run of surpluses in the federal budget. Those surpluses were short-lived, however, as the rules expired in 2002 and the administration went on a spending and tax cut spree. The amendment was expected to pass, with one key Republican Senator, Tom Coburn (R-OK) voting twice last fall to support PAYGO during votes that lost 50-49 each time. Former Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) - a supporter of PAYGO rules - was absent from those votes while campaigning for governor of New Jersey, and his replacement Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) could have cast the deciding vote and approve the amendment. Yet Coburn, demonstrating neither consistency nor conviction, changed his vote and opposed the amendment when it really counted, causing it to fail again by a vote of 50-50. In another blow to a proper budget process, the resolution was approved including language to authorize drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A setback for environmentalists who want to preserve the Refuge as one of the last untouched natural areas in the United States, the filibuster-protected provision also represents one of the worst abuses of the budget process, included while having absolutely nothing to do with the federal budget. Opening of ANWR was attempted in the Senate last year as well, when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) used his influence to add the ANWR language during the conference committee of the budget cuts bill passed in early 2006. It was eventually removed because it threatened the success of the budget bill. In both these instances, this provision should be considered in separate legislation brought to the Senate floor by the committee with oversight over the nation's energy policy, not in budget bills seeking to outline the nation's spending priorities. The House of Representatives is far behind the Senate in construction and approval of its budget blueprint, with the House Budget Committee markup still at least a week away. In sharp contrast to the Senate, the House Budget Committee is expected to unveil a far more draconian budget resolution that could include a new round of deep cuts to domestic programs and possibly reconciliation provisions to cut entitlement programs and/or extend more tax cuts. It is also possible the House budget bill will include negative budget process changes such as the president's recent request for enhanced rescission power - or a new version of the line-item veto. The final version of the Senate resolution is likely to draw sharp criticism from conservative House members and House Democrats for varying reasons, and negotiations toward a final compromise are already expected to be extremely difficult. Since the budget resolution is not a binding document, appropriations committees can still begin developing their spending bills if the negotiations drag on past May 15 or if Congress cannot agree to a compromise. This was the case two years ago when no budget resolution was adopted.