Bush poised to win on spending demands

WASHINGTON -- President Bush seems likely to win his first spending fight with the new Congress early next year, but a sterner test of his commitment to fiscal restraint may come soon afterward should he seek billions more for war with Iraq and other items.

Leaders of the new Republican-led Congress are bent on sending Bush a $385 billion package next month wrapping together this budget year's 11 unfinished spending bills. They cover every federal agency but the Pentagon, whose two budget bills have been enacted.

That $385 billion price tag -- which Bush has demanded -- would be about $12 billion less than the amount approved unanimously by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would confirm the clout Bush earned when he helped his party to its Election Day takeover of the Senate.

If successful -- and it will not be easy -- Bush is virtually sure to use his State of the Union address on Jan. 28 to assert that he has curbed Congress' spending habits.

"There are plenty of ways to meet the nation's top priorities within that number" of $385 billion, White House budget director Mitchell Daniels said in a recent interview. "We simply want to get the business done because there is plenty of new business to do."

With the 108th Congress convening Jan. 7, GOP leaders will have little time to waste. Their task: writing and rounding up votes for a bill boosting funds for emergency responders, biomedical research and other White House and congressional favorites while holding overall spending to far less growth than in recent years.

House and Senate aides all but completed an agreement on how the money would be divided among the 11 bills. The legislation will cover the federal budget year that runs through September.

Democrats will no doubt complain that the final product shortchanges many programs. They say it will be tough for Republicans to honor the president's limits without using gimmicks, such as including funds that cannot be spent until next year.

"It's just sort of a public relations operation to make it look like they're being fiscally tough, when what you're really doing is playing an accounting game," said Scott Lilly, Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, which writes spending bills.

Even if successful, many say it will not be long before the administration seeks more funds, anchored by money to finance war with Iraq.

Daniels said there will be such a bill "if and only if there are new circumstances."

Others see such legislation -- called a supplemental spending bill -- as pretty much inevitable. Besides funds for fighting Iraq, they expect it to cover counterterrorism efforts, aid to allies and domestic programs such as overhauling state election systems. This additional spending would give critics an opening to mock earlier White House victory claims of financial restraint.

"There almost certainly will be a supplemental. The only question is how large it will be," said Stephen Moore, president of the conservative Club for Growth.

Once the 11 unfinished bills are enacted, many lawmakers "will think that's the end of their obligations, and it will be back to business as usual" of spending more than Bush wants, predicted Robert Reischauer, president of the liberal-leaning Urban Institute.

With so much spending work unfinished, the entire government -- except the Pentagon -- has functioned on temporary authority since the federal budget year began Oct. 1. That authority expires Jan. 11.