As Congress continues making progress on appropriations legislation, and as details of its spending priorities are revealed in each of the twelve FY 2008 appropriations bills, signs of waning enthusiasm for sustaining presidential vetoes are appearing within a group of 147 House Republicans. While this group vowed to support any presidential veto of appropriations bills, eight of the appropriations bills passed thus far by the House have garnered significant bipartisan support, defraying the solidarity of that coalition. In May, 147 Republican representatives pledged to vote to sustain presidential vetoes of spending bills that exceeded the president's initial budget request. So far, 62 of those signatories have voted for an appropriations bill the president has threatened to veto. Of the eight bills approved by the House, four have been met with veto threats from the president, and four representatives out of the 147 promised veto-sustainers have voted for each of those threatened bills, while three voted for three out of four bills. Although a vote in favor of a given bill does not preclude a vote to sustain a veto, it is consistent with support of the substance of the bill and makes it more difficult for the legislator to change his or her vote later in the process. The Senate has also made progress on the appropriations bills, with its Appropriations Committee having passed 11 of the 12. However, the full Senate has yet to take any action on annual spending legislation. Despite the veto threats from the White House, Congress has stuck firmly to the budget resolution it passed in May. And although Congress's proposed FY 2008 spending levels are nine percent above those enacted in FY 2007, when those levels are adjusted for inflation and population growth, the next fiscal year's non-defense discretionary spending will be lower than it was in FY 2005. At $151.4 billion, the House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill is the largest of the non-defense measures. It allocates $10 billion (7.5 percent) more than the president's request and $2.2 billion (1.65 percent) more than the Senate's bill to health, education and worker programs. In addition to the bill's funding level, the president has threatened to veto it because of language regarding female reproductive health. Included in the bill is: Program/Line Item (chart in millions) FY 2008 Appropriations Amount Above President's Request dislocated worker assistance 1,115 357 job training 1,552 252 community health centers 2,188 200 rural health programs 145 120 Centers for Disease Control to fund terrorism preparedness and response programs 1,589 85 Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) 2,662 880 No Child Left Behind-authorized programs 25,641 975 Representing the largest boost in Veterans Affairs spending since the agency's inception, the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs spending bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House on June 15 by a vote of 409-2. The measure is $4 billion more than the president's request, but the president has declined to veto it, issuing instead a demand that Congress find spending offsets in other appropriations bills. Among others, the bill would set spending levels for the following programs: Program/Line Item (chart in millions) FY 2008 Appropriations Amount Above President's Request programs to treat post-traumatic stress disorder for veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 600 600 assistance for homeless veterans 130 23 medical and prosthetic research 480 69 maintenance and renovation of existing medical facilities 4,100 508 In June, the House also approved the FY 2008 Homeland Security appropriations bill. Providing $36.3 billion in funding for securing the nation's borders, airspace, Coast Guard and infrastructure, the bill provides over $2 billion more for homeland security than the president's request. Some details of the bill include: Program/Line Item (chart in millions) FY 2008 Appropriations Amount Above President's Request first responder and port security grants 4,620 700 Transportation Safety Administration 6,640 234 border security 8,900 139 FEMA management 685 17 Republican support in the House for sustaining a spate of vetoes has already begun to waver. By emphasizing spending on human needs, and placing vital social programs above unnecessary discretionary spending cuts, the Democratic leadership has been able to attract strong support from both sides of the aisle to FY 2008 appropriations legislation. In so doing, Congress may be able to eschew attempts by the White House to bully into law insufficient spending levels.