Congress has finally approved the Omnibus Appropriations Bill (H.J. Res. 2) for FY03, more than four months into the fiscal year. Both chambers cleared the $397.4 billion bill Feb. 13. Earlier in the week, NACo wrote the conference leaders, Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Bill Young (R-Fla.), outlining its priorities for the conference. These included election reform, first responders, highway and Amtrak funding, Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), rural development, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant, workforce development and the Community Access Program.
Negotiations came down to the wire over issues related to the size of the across-the-board cuts and the drought relief proposals. As expected, the across-the-board cut that had been included in the Senate bill was substantially changed during final negotiations. Most domestic discretionary programs received this cut, but it was 0.65 percent instead of the 2.38 percent in the Senate bill.
At one point it looked like the negotiators would not be able to come to an agreement, which would have led to a continuing resolution for the rest of the year, which would have basically funded the programs at last year’s levels. If this had happened, NACo’s priorities for election reform and first responder funding would not have been funded because they were new programs that were not in effect in FY02.
The House adopted the bill by a vote of 338-83 and the Senate by a vote of 76-20.
Download the PDF of omnibus bill details...
