Congress shifted into full appropriations mode the week of June 4 as both the House and Senate began subcommittee markups of the twelve individual appropriations bills. As the White House and congressional Democrats continue to trade barbs about potential vetoes of spending bills above President Bush's request, the House is scheduled to consider its first four appropriations bills on the floor this week — all of which exceed the president's requested spending levels. Democrats are hoping to pass all appropriations bills before October 1, the start of the new fiscal year, a feat not accomplished since 1994 — the last year Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress. On June 4, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) announced the breakdown of the total discretionary budget to each of the twelve appropriations subcommittees. These numbers, called 302(b) allocations, give each subcommittee chairman an overall target for the discretionary programs under his or her jurisdiction. Despite repeated premature veto threats from Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman, Obey and the House committee approved subcommittee allocations above the president's request in eight out of the 12 bills. (See breakout of the House's 302(b) allocations) The House levels in the remaining four bills (Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations) were only a combined $5 billion below the president's request. The administration may have backed itself into a corner by vowing to veto any appropriations bill that exceeded the president's request so early on in the process. On June 6, the House Appropriations committee approved the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill by a unanimous 56-0 vote, including all 29 committee Republicans. The bill is currently $4 billion above the president's request, and should he hold true to his earlier commitments, Portman will recommend that President Bush veto the bill. Since some appropriations bills have been vastly underfunded over the last several years and many of the programs within the bills are popular with both parties (like the Veterans Health programs funded in the House Military Construction-VA bill), it is likely the president will be boxed in on more than just this appropriations bill. But that has not stopped some House Republicans from attempting to bolster the president's new-found "commitment" to fiscal responsibility. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a conservative group of House Republicans, sent the president a letter vowing to support any veto of appropriations bills that are higher than the president's request. The RSC hopes to garner enough signers on the letter to show sufficient support to sustain a presidential veto of any FY 2008 appropriations bill. While the official list of signers to the letter has not been released, press reports indicate the RSC has convinced 135 out of a necessary 146 legislators to sign the letter. After completing a busy workload the week of June 4 within the appropriations committee, the House is scheduled to consider four appropriations bills on the floor this week, starting with the Homeland Security bill today (June 12). At $37.4 billion — $2.1 billion above the president's request — the Homeland Security bill may also end up being a showdown between the president and Congress. Also on the docket this week are the Energy and Water, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Interior and Environment appropriations bills. In addition, the full House Appropriations committee currently has five additional bills ready for consideration (Financial Services, Labor-HHS, Legislative Branch, State-Foreign Ops, and Transportation-HUD). The Senate is just beginning its appropriations committee work, leading off with the Military Construction-VA and Homeland Security bills. The subcommittee mark-ups for both of those bills are being held today (June 12), and the full committee will consider the bills on June 14.