The negotiations will test President Bush’s clout. The White House has said Bush will veto the final supplemental if it exceeds $94 billion. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) sides with Bush. After the Senate vote, Hastert said, “As it’s currently drafted, the Senate’s...bill is dead on arrival in the House.”
Larry Bory, HDR vice president for federal government relations, agrees. “I think this is going to be a big salami,” he says. “They’re going to make some cuts.” Bory thinks the final bill is likely to be “somewhere close to $100 billion.” He says some items dropped from the supplemental probably will end up in fiscal 2007 appropriations bills later this year.