Congress Passes FY 2009 Budget Resolution, Continues Work on FY 2008 War Supplemental That Augments Veterans Education Benefits

June 10, 2008

Congress passed the FY 2009 budget resolution last week, which includes $1.013 trillion in discretionary funding for the next fiscal year.

The nonbinding resolution is $21 billion more than President Bush requested in his budget proposal, released last February. Funding for education and social services is $8.4 billion above the president’s request. The majority of this increase will go to restore programs eliminated in the president's budget, so the net effect will not create much room for growth in programs important to higher education.

The resolution passed the House on June 4 by a narrow vote of 214-210. House action on the bill came after the Senate approved the compromise measure by a vote of 48-45 the previous day.

Passage of the budget resolution clears the way for work to begin in earnest on individual appropriations bills, with a subcommittee markup of the House Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill scheduled for June 19. The Senate will begin the process the following week.

The presidential election however will likely delay the normal timetable for budget and appropriations matters, as spending bills are likely to draw the threat of a presidential veto and the Democrat-controlled Congress will probably wait until a new president takes office.

FY 2008 War Supplemental Spending Bill

Congress also has been working on a war supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year, although the fate of this measure is somewhat murky.

The House is considering a version of the bill that passed the Senate by a large majority last week, which includes an amendment that significantly enhances the education benefits in the Montgomery GI Bill.

House and Senate leaders have disagreed on the amount of additional domestic spending to include, with several senators insisting on including an extension of unemployment benefits and funding for energy and other programs. However, conservative Democratic “Blue Dogs” in the House continue to oppose the extra spending and demand offsets for the veterans' benefits. It is unlikely that the measure could pass without their support.

The White House has reversed its previous position and indicated that it would support the supplemental bill on the condition that it only included the GI Bill and that the GI Bill is expanded to allow veterans to pass their benefits on to their immediate family members.

The jobs report issued last Friday has further clouded the schedule for passage, with the dramatic rise in the unemployment rate increasing congressional efforts to pass an extension of unemployment benefits. As a result, consideration of the supplemental bill will likely be pushed back another week.