On Jan. 31, the House cleared a $463.5 billion joint resolution that boosts spending or maintains service levels in health, education and housing programs while staying under a tight budget cap. The resolution also makes $10 billion worth of cuts in 60 programs and eliminates earmark language from bills that were drafted but not passed during the last Congress. If the Senate passes the resolution, the new Congress will finish the FY 2007 budget bills, which the last session of Congress failed to do. The bill (H.J. Res. 20) was considered under a rule that blocked amendments, which angered Republicans who wanted to change the resolution. One slighted Republican — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA) — urged all members of the appropriations committee to vote against the bill on these procedural grounds, but 57 Republicans ended up voting in favor of the bill. It passed 286-140. The resolution marks the beginning of the end of a dysfunctional budget year. The last session of Congress succeeded in passing only two of 11 appropriations bills for FY 2007. It opted instead to punt the unfinished appropriations bills to the current Congress by passing a stop-gap continuing resolution (CR) that flat-funded or cut many programs for several months. The House resolution is a mixture of the nine unfinished appropriations bills with a limited number of funding boosts in specific program areas. H.J. Res. 20 is similar in many ways to some of the priorities contained in budget and appropriations bills passed by the 109th Congress. The resolution would keep the total amount of appropriations under the $873 billion spending cap that the last Congress set. And the resolution's funding is largely a function of the FY06 appropriations bills. But the joint resolution also signals a departure from the policies and priorities of the last Congress. Many programs the 109th Congress tried to cut will now get additional funding to maintain their current level of services, and some will get funding that boosts services. Programs providing health care, housing and educational assistance are some of the ones that will see increases. Significant changes include:

• $1.7 billion more for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria;
• $3.6 billion more for VA healthcare;
• $1.4 billion more for Section 8 housing assistance;
• $600 million more for the National Institutes of Health;
• $600 million more for Pell Grant student loans.

To add this funding and stay under the appropriations cap, the resolution would move funding out of other programs. Defense programs would take the bulk of the cuts, though the upcoming supplemental appropriations bill for ongoing military expenses may include some additional funding to restore those cuts. Funding cuts that would reduce services include:

• $3 billion less for military base-relocation;
• $700 million less for foreign aid;
• $700 million less for Iraq reconstruction.

The majority of the rest of $10 billion in offsets will come from canceling budget authority that had not yet been used in housing and transportation programs — saving $5 billion under the discretionary cap. This change will not affect services. Making good on a prior pledge, House appropriators stripped the resolution of all new earmark language but not the funds that the language had directed. Agencies have the option of using these funds for the same purpose as earmark language would have directed. The Energy Department, for example, has announced that it intends to use funding to continue projects that had been initiated by earmarks in previous appropriations. The legislation is now headed for the Senate, where it may encounter more amendments and procedural roadblocks. Some Senators have already announced they intend to amend the resolution, which may delay its passage. If the resolution stalls in the Senate, another short-term CR may be passed. Congress has until February 15th to pass either the resolution or an extension of the CR.