The Senate approved funding for fiscal 2007 on Feb. 14, a day before the temporary measure covering agency spending was set to expire.

On an 81-15 vote, the Senate approved House Joint Resolution 20, which funds most government operations and programs at fiscal 2006 levels, but adds more than 100 pages of exceptions, including additional funding for agencies in danger of furloughing staff and money to cover half of the 2.2 percent civilian pay increase.

Federal employees have been eagerly awaiting passage of a 2007 spending bill — until now they’ve been operating with an uncertain budget future and held in most cases to 2006 funding levels.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, were not happy about how House Joint Resolution 20 ended up. Republican Sens. Tom Coburn, Okla.; James Inhofe, Okla.; and John McCain, Ariz., took the floor before the vote and denounced the Democratic leadership’s decision to not allow the $464 billion funding bill to be amended in any way. They also faulted the bill’s cut of $3.1 billion from the president’s funding request for military base closings and consolidations.

Coburn was especially incensed at what he called the bill’s lack of clarity, dishonesty about costs and inclusion of $17 billion in hidden earmarks. He said he wanted to extend the continuing resolution for two more weeks to debate it, but said he was denied.

“It’s a scam, and the American people need to know it’s a scam,” Coburn said. “The way to lower taxes is to get rid of the waste, fraud, abuse and duplication present in government. This bill does none of that.”

McCain said Democrats plan to include the BRAC funding in a $93.4 billion military supplemental the White House is expected to submit in March. But Coburn said that will be too late to reap the cost savings BRAC was intended to provide.

McCain also criticized the bill’s restrictions on amendments and BRAC cuts.

“This callous [BRAC] decision directly harms communities, as well as the military units placed in limbo by the sudden denial of funds,” McCain said.
And McCain questioned how rolling BRAC funding into the supplemental — which is meant to pay for unexpected costs such as those arising from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — will affect soldiers.

“What critical warfighting requirement will be cut in the supplemental to pay for BRAC costs?” McCain said. “What kind of a solution is that? I haven’t heard one idea on how to pay for it.”

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said lawmakers have done the best they could considering the previous Congress failed to pass a spending bill. He denied that Democrats were trying to railroad a spending bill through without consulting Republicans, and said senators and representatives from both parties were involved in its drafting.

“We inherited an unbelievable mess, and we tried to make the most of it,” Dorgan said. “This BRAC issue is going to get resolved.”

But McCain said he was pleased with how the bill reined in earmarks. Compared with the $64 billion in earmarks the Congressional Research Service found in the fiscal 2006 budget, McCain said, this bill is largely free of so-called pork barrel spending.

McCain noted the bill was passed without a report accompanying it, where he said the bulk of earmarks has been included in the past.

“Appropriations committees should take this as a guide in the future when it comes to earmarks,” McCain said. “Don’t include them, and don’t waste the taxpayers’ dollars.”

The bill now goes to President Bush to sign.

Congress only passed spending bills for the Defense and Homeland Security departments before fiscal 2007 began.