WASHINGTON House Republican members of the appropriations panel threw cold water Tuesday on the Senate leaderships plan to revive faltering bankruptcy reform legislation by attaching it to a mandatory spending bill.
Senate Republicans had indicated last week that they might try to staple a new bankruptcy package which the White House has said it would veto to an appropriations measure, most probably the transportation bill.
The House Appropriations Committee, however, opposes any such effort. The House and Senate have separately adopted transportation spending bills and are trying to reconcile them. Supporters of the appropriations fear a controversial amendment such as bankruptcy reform could stall the bill.
We would strongly resist any extraneous provisions that would cause a spending bill to be vetoed, a committee spokesman said.
In a sign that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott could be backing off, he and fellow party leaders have not yet made the necessary procedural attempts to attach bankruptcy provisions to any appropriations bill.
If Senate leadership wanted to include [bankruptcy legislation] in the transportation bill, it has not been communicated to us, the committee spokesman said.
A House-Senate conference committee is to meet today to consider the transportation bill.
In other congressional business, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to consider new markets legislation today for expanding investment opportunities in poor communities.
