The NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 610, released Thursday, December 20th, leads with news about the much delayed appropriations bills.  Due to the impending conditional adjournment of the Congress, the next Hotline is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, January 16, 2008.  It will report December consumer price news.  (659 words; 3:52)

Amid a "going out of business" frenzy the Congress cleared, and the President is expected to sign, a 4th Continuing Resolution to extend spending authority through December 31 st.  Eager to leave the Capitol for holidays at home, the first session of the 110th Congress wrapped up its session and prepared for a conditional adjournment (Senate Concurrent Resolution 61).  A massive omnibus appropriations bill, attached to the foreign operations appropriations ( H.R. 2764 http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app08.html) moved back and forth between the House and Senate before going to the White House for signature.  The omnibus contains the eleven unfinished annual appropriations and complies with President Bush's overall ceiling for discretionary spending, $932.8 billion.  Furthermore, first the Senate, then the House voted to add Iraq war spending without the provisions opposed by the Administration.  The omnibus contains pay parity for the civil service who will eventually see a raise of 3.5 percent that was approved earlier for the military services.

Congress also cleared legislation, S. 2499, to temporarily increase Medicare reimbursements to doctors by 0.5 percent.  But for this six month patch, reimbursements would be reduced 10 percent beginning in the new year under Medicare cost containment formulas.  S. 2499 also extends SCHIP funding for 15 months.  Another legislative patch also was cleared for the President.  This one, H.R. 3996, suspends the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for one year.  Without any action, the AMT could have hiked the 2007 taxes of some 23 million taxpayers.  But in passing the suspension, Congress defied its own PAY-GO rules and passed the tax extension without any offsetting revenues.

 The second session of the 110th Congress begins when the House convenes at Noon on Tuesday, January 15, 2008.  A January 16 Hotline will report December consumer price news and the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) beneficiaries.  The January 16 th Hotline also will report any additional cosponsors added to NARFE priority legislation (http://capwiz.com/narfe/issues/bills/), as Premium Conversion, GPO/WEP Repeal, and all other pending bills carry over from 2007 into 2008.

 President Bush (www.whitehouse.gov) is to deliver his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Monday, January 28.  One week later, February 4, the final Bush Administration budget (for fiscal year 2009) must, by law, be presented to the second session of the 110 th Congress.  The President's budget is his plan for tax and spending levels for the fiscal year that begins October 1, 2008.

 To encourage NARFE members to schedule personal meetings with their Members of Congress, the February NARFE magazine (page 12) will list scheduled 2008 "recesses," during which, most Representatives and Senators seeking re-election conduct public meetings, hold Meet and Greet sessions and open their district and state offices in order to meet constituents. (The schedule listed below will aid federation and chapter legislative leaders in planning visits to Congressional offices in this election year.  (The best source of district office addresses, with maps and driving directions is http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm)

January 15                 House convenes

January 22                 Senate convenes

January 28                 State of the Union

February 16-24         Presidents Day Work Period (both House and Senate)

March 15-30              St. Patrick/Easter Work Period (both)

May 24-June 1           Memorial Day Work Period (both)

June 28-July 6           Independence Day Work Period (both)

August 9-Sept. 7       Summer Work Period (both)

September 26           Target Adjournment Date (House))

 Thank you for using the Hotline.  This weekly legislative message is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and broadcast to more than 47,000 GEMS e-mail addresses.  Each delivery channel is a service of the NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.