Completion of FY10 Approps Pushed to December; World Bank Caucus to Meet with Zoellick
Against the backdrop of the recent runoff election announcement in Afghanistan and with the all consuming health care debate set to begin next week, Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) has indicated that the FY10 Appropriations process may not be wrapped until early December. Last night, the Senate passed the $42.8 billion Homeland Security bill, sending the fourth appropriations bill to the White House. With only 10 days until the current continuing resolution expires, Congress will have to pass another stop-gap funding measure. It is looking more likely that the $48.7 billion FY10 State, Foreign Ops bill, the largest component of the International Affairs Budget, will be wrapped up into a “mini-bus” bill with the other remaining spending measures not yet passed by the Senate.
Today, the Caucus for Congressional-World Bank Dialogue, a year-old, bipartisan, 17-member caucus founded by co-chairs Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) and Kevin Brady (R-TX-08), meets with World Bank President Robert Zoellick in advance of the bank’s annual meeting. The goal of the caucus is to improve the relationship between Congress and the World Bank. While Congress has little oversight responsibility, the United States is the largest single financial contributor to the bank, funding which must be approved by Congress.
