Dems Will Not Address FY 2007 Budget

Leaders of the incoming House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Wisconsin Representative David Obey and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, have announced that Congress will not attempt to pass government spending bills (i.e. an FY 2007 budget) when the 110th Congress convenes in early January.  Basically, the Dems do not want to spend time passing the bills and will instead begin to work on their various agendas.  This means that only the departments of Defense and Homeland Security will have budgets for FY 2007.  The rest of the government's departments and agencies will continue to be funded at FY 2006 levels (or less!), as agreed to in a series of so-called "Continuing Resolutions."  The outgoing Congress passed a CR funding the government up until February 15, 2007.  The new Congress will likely pass another CR when it comes back in January, which will fund the government up through September 30, 2007.

The only plus here is that the absence of government spending bills also means a moratorium on earmarks—in other words, government spending will not rise in FY 2007 via earmarks on appropriations bills.  On the other hand, goverment workers are hit hard because the CR will represent a freeze, pegging government spending to FY 2006 levels, and salaries must remain where they are at within a particular department, unless those departments can figure a way to redistribute funding internally.

It is likely that the White House and various members of Congress will still attempt to move money from one Department to another.  How this will be done is unclear.  Already there is acknowledgement that the Veterans Administration will need funding above and beyond 2006 levels, in order to fund rising costs for veterans' medical care.