The Senate and House shortened their floor schedules this week to allow a congressional delegation to attend the Pope's funeral that occurred today, Friday, April 8. House leaders have postponed consideration of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (S. 256) until next week. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $80.4 billion emergency supplemental bill for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign policy priorities on Wednesday, April 6. The full Senate is expected to consider the legislation sometime next week. Once the Senate approves its bill, House and Senate negotiators face a tough task working out differences in their bills to craft a final measure.

House Republican leadership outlined a floor agenda for the next seven weeks until the congressional Memorial Day recess. Bankruptcy reform legislation will be dealt with first, but floor action was postponed from this week to next week because of the Pope's funeral. The House is then expected to consider legislation to permanently repeal the estate tax. Other potential items on the schedule include a comprehensive energy bill, tort reform legislation, welfare reform reauthorization, and the conference report on the fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget resolution. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) stated the House could "possibly" go to conference on the budget resolution during the week of April 11.

The Department of Defense recently announced that their long standing estimate of excess base capacity, 25 percent, may be too high. The Pentagon asserts that the reduction reflects an ongoing effort to close military facilities overseas which will necessitate moving tens of thousands of troops back to U.S. bases. As the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round approaches, many states have encouraged DoD to weigh overseas bases when determining how many installations to close and or realign in the U.S.

DoD is moving forward with their fifth round of BRAC as it wants to eliminate unnecessary installation infrastructure and use the resultant savings to improve military readiness and fighting capabilities. DoD estimates the upcoming BRAC round will result in recurring savings of $7 billion a year. Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will release his recommendations for base closures and realignments by May 16, 2005.

President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform announced this past week that it is soliciting ideas from interested parties about reforming the tax code. After a series of public hearings to define the problems in the current code, the panel is now shifting its focus to consider options for reform. Proposals should be submitted by April 29, 2005 and instructions are available via the tax panel's website at: http://www.taxreformpanel.gov/contact/