The Senate Appropriations Committee approved on June 19th its binding 302(b) allocations for its 12 Appropriations Subcommittees. The committee approved $38.2 billion for the FY09 International Affairs Budget, $1.6 billion less than requested by the Administration and $3.9 billion or 11.4 percent above FY08 base funding.  In both the House and Senate, the International Affairs Budget and Defense Appropriations are below the Administration’s request. In contrast, all of the domestic spending bills received increases above request levels.

The House approved also on June 19th a compromise War Supplemental that contains a total of $186.5 billion in supplemental funding for FY08 and FY09. The bill includes $9.9 billion for the International Affairs Budget.  The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration and it is unclear how the compromise bill will be received as the additional $10 billion in domestic spending included in the Senate version of the bill was removed in the House compromise.  The Democratic leadership hopes to have a final bill for the White House before the July 4th recess.