GAI Newsletter

Appropriations Overview as Congress Heads into August Recess

By Kenneth Gold, Director, and John Haskell, Senior Fellow

To say that the appropriations process got off to a rocky start this spring is an understatement. It is probably more accurate to say it stalled out. There were a couple of reasons for this unfortunate situation.

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Upcoming GAI Course(s):

Seminar for Executives on Legislative Operations

The Seminar for Executives on Legislative Operations is designed for members of the Senior Executive Service, SES candidates, and GS 14s and 15s (or uniformed service equivalent) who need more detailed knowledge of the legislative process and are more likely to interact directly with Congress.

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The New Congress

The New Congress is a one-day course offered on Capitol Hill following the biennial congressional elections. It can also be arranged as a full- or half-day tailored course and conducted on-site at an organization.[More]

Director's Desk

For many years “emergency” defense supplementals have been treated as sacred, must-pass legislation, and therefore as Christmas trees on to which members sought to add all manner of earmarked projects. Two recent earthquakes have rocked that foundation. The first is the race between Democrats and Republicans to swear off, or at least give the appearance of swearing off earmarks. The result has been a sharp, significant decrease in member sponsored projects in the supplementals.

The second is because of their sacred status, they generally moved fairly easily through the chambers. This didn’t happen in 2007, when the defense supplemental became the center of the debate between the then new Democratic majority in Congress and President Bush – and this year, when the bill stalled for more than four months before its passage earlier this week. Chances of passing all the major defense bills before the end of the fiscal year are dim, to say the least. Passing them in a lame duck session before the end of the calendar year are increasingly bleak as well.

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