Conferees Agree on $397-Billion Omnibus Spending Bill
After weeks of wrangling, House and Senate appropriators have reached agreement on a $397.4-billion omnibus spending package that funds all the federal non-defense agencies--and adds money to the Pentagon's budget--for the remainder of fiscal year 2003. Once it is enacted, the legislation would release billions of dollars of construction funding.
The conferees' agreement reached on Feb. 12, now must be approved by the full House and Senate and signed by President Bush. Non-defense agencies have been operating under a series of continuing funding resolutions since fiscal 2003 started last Oct. 1. Those "CRs" generally funded agencies at their 2002 budget levels.