Budget work in Congress being left unfinished

WASHINGTON — Republicans vacating the Capitol are leaving a big spring-cleaning job for Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.

The decision to drop so much unfinished work in Democrats' laps demonstrates both division within Republican ranks and the difficulty in resolving so many knotty questions in so short a time. GOP leaders promised their House and Senate members the December lame-duck session would last no more than two weeks, or until Dec. 16 at the latest.

Now, with the agenda shrinking, a session that will be the last for 45 retiring or defeated House members and senators should be wrapped up by Dec. 8.

Driving the decision to quit and go home rather than finish the remaining budget work is a determined effort by a group of conservative Republicans to prevent putting a GOP stamp on spending bills covering 13 Cabinet departments — and loaded with thousands of home-state projects derided as "pork" by critics.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill would rather complete this year's budget work and have the GOP's imprint rather than a Democratic one on how federal agencies will be spending their money through next September.

However, conservatives such as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., fear doing that would leave as the GOP's legacy a foot-tall bill containing thousands of parochial projects. Last week they seized the upper hand by employing delaying tactics to drag the budget process to a halt in the Senate.

"The last thing Republicans need is an end-of-Congress spending spree as our last parting shot as we walk out the door," said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton.

Some Republicans also look forward to using unfinished budget work to gum up an early Democratic agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, cutting interest rates on college loans and repealing some tax breaks for oil companies.

For its part, the White House sided with GOP traditionalists such as Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who has been pushing to finish the budget while Republicans still hold power.

"We think it's the best thing for fiscal discipline," White House Budget Director Rob Portman said.

Instead, lawmakers are expected to pass a temporary bill to keep the domestic agencies at this year's spending levels until Democrats can come up with new bills.

It will be no small test of the incoming Democratic majority, which has yet to develop a plan to cope with the more than $460 billion in unfinished budget business.

The Democrats' problem is made even more complicated because President Bush in early 2007 will send Congress a bill that could exceed $130 billion for continuing the war in Iraq, according to Capitol Hill aides.