Fiscal 2004 Omnibus Appropriations. Adoption of this conference report on H.R. 2673 (Fiscal 2004 Omnibus Appropriations) would provide a total of $820 billion in fiscal 2004, including $328.1 billion in \"discretionary\" spending, for a whole laundry list of federal departments and agencies. On January 22, Congressional Quarterly described this bill as \"among the biggest appropriations packages ever written by Congress.\" Total fiscal year 2004 spending (both \"mandatory\" and \"discretionary\") in this bill includes $80.6 billion (up 8.0 percent) for the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and related agencies; $38.4 billion (up 1.3 percent) for the Commerce, Justice and State departments and judicial agencies; $545 million (up 7.1 percent) for the District of Columbia; $17.3 billion (down 27 percent) for foreign aid and export assistance; $471.8 billion (up 11.5 percent) for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Departments; $89.8 billion (up 3.7 percent) for the Transportation and Treasury Departments and related independent agencies; and $124.0 billion (up 4.4 percent) for the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development Departments.
The Senate adopted the conference report on H.R. 2673 on January 22, 2004 by a vote of 65 to 28 (Roll Call 3). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill not only perpetuates huge amounts of unconstitutional federal spending, it also contains many spending increases for various federal agencies despite the fact that annual federal deficits have mushroomed to record levels.
