While House leadership announced that sunset commissions would come up for a vote later than initially predicted, the Senate unexpectedly set the stage for its own consideration of a sunset commission proposal. OMB Watch reported conflicting accounts two weeks ago about the timing for unveiling, and bringing to a vote, a final House package on sunset commissions. At the time, House GOP leadership suggested that a vote could happen imminently, while Hill sources speculated that leadership was being overly optimistic. The latter proved to be the case. According to BNA's subscription-only Daily Report for Executives, the negotiations over a final proposal continued on several important details -- including whether the Department of Defense would be exempted from the sunset commission's purview. Now, House leaders report that a House bill will come up for a vote in the first couple of weeks after Congress's July 4 recess. Meanwhile, the Senate unexpectedly moved forward with its own sunset commission proposal. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), chairman of the Budget Committee, unveiled the "Stop Over Spending Act" (S. 3521), a potpourri of budget process reforms with features that include attacks on entitlements, a line-item veto, and a sunset commission. The Gregg sunset commission language is similar in most respects to the proposals developed by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), the chief differences being:

• no exemptions for the Department of Defense, entitlement programs, or any other programs;
• charging the commission to produce four separate reviews and recommendations, each covering 25% of the federal programs in question; and
• adjusting the language from the Tiahrt/Brownback bills that would codify White House performance appraisals by acknowledging performance indicators that cannot easily be measured.

Click here for a quick overview of the sunset commission proposal in the Gregg bill. The Senate Budget Committee reported out the bill on a party line vote, with Democratic members offering what they called the "Do Your Job Amendment," to underscore the fact that the commission called for in the bill would usurp Congress's rightful role and responsibility for oversight. The amendment was rejected. Prospects for the Gregg bill are uncertain, although reports are trickling out that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) may be considering a variety of options, including breaking the Gregg bill into separate pieces, and that House GOP leadership has expressed interest in the concepts in Gregg's bill. Because of these separate developments, public interest groups across the country made an early show of force by sending an opposition statement to each chamber, signed by 278 national, state, and local organizations.