• By a vote of 404 to 14, the House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill that would keep government agencies running until November 16. Included were the various aviation-related taxes that fund FAA operations. The new budget year started October 1 and, at that time, none of the 12 appropriations bills funding government agencies had been signed into law. Before leaving for the August recess, the House passed all 12 bills, but the Senate was guilty of foot dragging. Four bills that were passed by both chambers were in House-Senate conference committees to resolve differences between the versions.
Last year Democrats ripped the Republicans for their performance in not completing Congressional budget work on time. As Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again” inasmuch as Democrats had not done any better this year than Republicans did last year. President Bush said that he would not approve a last-minute omnibus bill that lumped all agency appropriations together. He also made it clear that he would veto appropriations bills that contained billions of dollars in pork barrel projects, that he would not go along with expansion of government programs if costs were not offset elsewhere in the budget and that he would not accept increasing taxes to pay for congressional extravagance.
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