FLAME ACT MOVES FORWARD
The House Natural Resources Committee adopted the FLAME measure last week. The Federal Land Assistance Management and Enhancement Act, H.R. 5541, would create a new and separate federal fund to fight catastrophic forest fires.
Authorized funding for the new fund would be based on the average amount spent (over the previous five fiscal years) to fight these fires. The funding would then be subject to appropriations.
The FLAME bill, H.R. 5541 was adopted by voice vote. During Committee consideration, an amendment was adopted that incorporates provisions from a competing bill (H.R. 5648) sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte. Among the provisions added to the measure include a requirement that the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture review fires that cost more than $10 million, and requires the Secretaries to notify Congress when the emergency fire budget drops to a level that would only cover two months worth of estimated expenditures.
FARM BILL EXTENDED ONE WEEK
The House and Senate have passed a one-week extension of current farm law; however, there was some doubt if President Bush would actually sign the extension. The 2002 farm law expires at midnight on April 18.
President Bush had let it be known that he was not going to sign another extension unless negotiators had made significant progress. If he does not sign the extension, farm law reverts back to the 1930’s-era law. If he does sign the extension, then Congress has until April 25 to wrap-up the conference or to simply pass a long-term extension of the 2002 law.
In all, slow progress is being made in conference committee, But completion of the bill was clearly not expected to happen by the April 18 deadline.
The chief hurdle remains the cost of $2.5 billion in tax credits that the Senate wants to add to the farm bill, on top of the $10 billion in extra spending that chamber is advocating. The Senate tax credits cover incentives for endangered species protection, alternative energy, and smaller farm-related provisions.
The House is insisting that any
above-baseline spending be kept to a lower amount. And, that the
tax credits be jettisoned because they do
not have pay-go offsets or are linked to offsets that are
problematic. Conferees and staffers are likely to work through the
weekend.
A SECOND ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE RUMORED TO BE CLOSER TO REALITY
Sources on Capitol Hill report this week that Congressional Democrats are preparing provisions for a second economic stimulus package.
One provision expected to be included is an extension of unemployment benefits (H.R. 5749) passed by the House Ways and Means Committee; under the bill (H.R. 5749), residents in all states would be eligible for an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. Residents in states with unemployment rates at or above 6 percent would be eligible for another 13 weeks of benefits. For now, only Alaska and Michigan meet that criteria.
Additional items that could be part of the stimulus package include infrastructure spending, food stamps, and aid to the states through Medicaid. It is possible that the second economic stimulus package could be added to the war supplemental appropriations bill.
WAR SUPPLEMENTAL ON THE WAY
It appears that House Democrats are considering two potential strategies for dealing with the war supplemental funding bill.
One idea is to craft one big war supplemental bill that would combine all pending Administration requests for war funding needed in Iraq and Afghanistan. If agreed to, the strategy would essentially move the war funding issue off the Congressional agenda until the next Administration. The proposed supplemental would cover the $102 billion requested for Fiscal Year 2008 and the $70 billion or so for FY09 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The second idea is to craft two separate war funding bills; one spending measure for the Iraq war and another measure for the efforts in Afghanistan.
Democrats are also weighing whether or not to attach non-defense domestic spending items to the supplemental, in either format. Non-defense spending items could total up to $24 billion and cover items like: county payments/Secure Rural Schools, $490 million for local law enforcement grants, $10 billion for infrastructure projects (bridge and road repairs), $500 million for the World Food Programme, and $350 million for wildfire suppression programs.
The war supplemental bill, in either format, could also house the second economic stimulus package.
