News
Democrats failed to add funding to a $32.8 billion Homeland Security appropriations bill Wednesday, with several provisions — targeted at increasing transit security and anti-terror grants — jettisoned because of spending caps.
The bill (HR 5441), the first of the regular fiscal 2007 spending measures to reach the Senate floor, would provide $31.7 billion in discretionary spending, $350 million less than the version the House passed June 6.
The measure stalled in the Senate for much of Wednesday, despite dozens of amendments filed by senators. But Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, aims to get a final vote on the bill Thursday evening.
Efforts by Democrats to increase Homeland Security funding above the discretionary allocation had little success Wednesday.
Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., introduced an amendment that would increase transit security funding by $1.1 billion, which included extensive improvements to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. But an attempt to waive the Homeland Security budget cap, which requires 60 votes, failed by a 50-50 tally.
An amendment introduced by Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., that would increase transit security funding by $300 million failed on a similar point of order, by a vote of 50-50.
Likewise, an amendment by Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., that would add $790 million in funding to grant programs failed, 47-53, on the point of order.
Clinton railed against the Homeland Security Department’s 40 percent cut of New York’s urban security grant in fiscal 2006 from the previous year.
Gregg said the flap simply was the result of poor communication between the department and New York City and Washington, D.C., about how to file grant applications.
“I do not believe the best approach at this time is to bust the budget,” Gregg said.
Robert Menendez, D-N.J. introduced another amendment that would provide more funding for larger population states. Though the measure would have Gregg’s support, it would face strong Senate opposition, Gregg said, when it’s voted on Thursday.
The proposal would set state minimums for homeland security grants for police, firefighters and other first-responders at 0.25 percent, compared with the current level of 0.75 percent of the available grant pool. After the minimums are distributed, the remainder of the grant funding is distributed based on population. Under the current formula, smaller states have received more funding per capita than bigger states that are presumed to be at a greater risk of a terrorist attack.
New York lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to place a similar amendment in last year’s Homeland Security appropriations conference report.
Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed a series of amendments Wednesday that would eliminate or expose earmarks in the bill.
By voice vote, the Senate adopted one Coburn amendment that would require the disclosure of earmarks in the final version of the measure produced by a conference committee. Coburn complained that previous attempts to require such disclosures have always been dumped overboard in conference.
Also adopted was a Coburn amendment requiring the disclosure of justifications of administration spending requests for homeland security.
Coburn encountered opposition from Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to a third amendment that would effectively prohibit spending on the Coast Guard’s long-range aid to a navigation program known as LORAN. The Senate bill calls for postponing a phaseout of the program pending cost-benefit studies.
A White House statement of administration policy on the appropriations bill released Wednesday called for an end to the LORAN program. Coburn said GPS navigation aids make LORAN superfluous. The two lawmakers eventually compromised on language that would allow LORAN stations in Alaska and the far Northwest of the continental United States.
Another Coburn amendment adopted by voice vote would transfer $1 million to the Homeland Security Department’s chief financial officer to track improper payments by the department.
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., won voice vote approval of an amendment authorizing a grant program for local law enforcement agencies to combat illegal immigration. The provision, which would authorize $50 million in each year from fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2011, was also added to a Senate-passed immigration overhaul (S 2611).
The statement of administration policy offered support for the Senate bill, but again urged Congress to approve increased aviation security fees, which the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office say would permit more than $1 billion in additional spending.
Senate appropriators — like their House counterparts — have rejected them.
The bill (HR 5441), the first of the regular fiscal 2007 spending measures to reach the Senate floor, would provide $31.7 billion in discretionary spending, $350 million less than the version the House passed June 6.
The measure stalled in the Senate for much of Wednesday, despite dozens of amendments filed by senators. But Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, aims to get a final vote on the bill Thursday evening.
Efforts by Democrats to increase Homeland Security funding above the discretionary allocation had little success Wednesday.
Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., introduced an amendment that would increase transit security funding by $1.1 billion, which included extensive improvements to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. But an attempt to waive the Homeland Security budget cap, which requires 60 votes, failed by a 50-50 tally.
An amendment introduced by Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., that would increase transit security funding by $300 million failed on a similar point of order, by a vote of 50-50.
Likewise, an amendment by Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., that would add $790 million in funding to grant programs failed, 47-53, on the point of order.
Clinton railed against the Homeland Security Department’s 40 percent cut of New York’s urban security grant in fiscal 2006 from the previous year.
Gregg said the flap simply was the result of poor communication between the department and New York City and Washington, D.C., about how to file grant applications.
“I do not believe the best approach at this time is to bust the budget,” Gregg said.
Robert Menendez, D-N.J. introduced another amendment that would provide more funding for larger population states. Though the measure would have Gregg’s support, it would face strong Senate opposition, Gregg said, when it’s voted on Thursday.
The proposal would set state minimums for homeland security grants for police, firefighters and other first-responders at 0.25 percent, compared with the current level of 0.75 percent of the available grant pool. After the minimums are distributed, the remainder of the grant funding is distributed based on population. Under the current formula, smaller states have received more funding per capita than bigger states that are presumed to be at a greater risk of a terrorist attack.
New York lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to place a similar amendment in last year’s Homeland Security appropriations conference report.
Tom Coburn, R-Okla., proposed a series of amendments Wednesday that would eliminate or expose earmarks in the bill.
By voice vote, the Senate adopted one Coburn amendment that would require the disclosure of earmarks in the final version of the measure produced by a conference committee. Coburn complained that previous attempts to require such disclosures have always been dumped overboard in conference.
Also adopted was a Coburn amendment requiring the disclosure of justifications of administration spending requests for homeland security.
Coburn encountered opposition from Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to a third amendment that would effectively prohibit spending on the Coast Guard’s long-range aid to a navigation program known as LORAN. The Senate bill calls for postponing a phaseout of the program pending cost-benefit studies.
A White House statement of administration policy on the appropriations bill released Wednesday called for an end to the LORAN program. Coburn said GPS navigation aids make LORAN superfluous. The two lawmakers eventually compromised on language that would allow LORAN stations in Alaska and the far Northwest of the continental United States.
Another Coburn amendment adopted by voice vote would transfer $1 million to the Homeland Security Department’s chief financial officer to track improper payments by the department.
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., won voice vote approval of an amendment authorizing a grant program for local law enforcement agencies to combat illegal immigration. The provision, which would authorize $50 million in each year from fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2011, was also added to a Senate-passed immigration overhaul (S 2611).
The statement of administration policy offered support for the Senate bill, but again urged Congress to approve increased aviation security fees, which the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office say would permit more than $1 billion in additional spending.
Senate appropriators — like their House counterparts — have rejected them.
