Yesterday evening President Bush signed into law the massive Omnibus bill that was approved by the Senate  on Saturday and the House last Wednesday.  HR 2638 includes a more than $600 billion continuing resolution package that keeps the federal government running through March 6, when the bills and the checkbook will be someone else's problem.

Such a huge bill usually would dominate the end-of-session agenda with fanfare, photo ops and press coverage, but has received little attention and fallen off the radar of most media outlets due to the domination of discussions on the congressional bailout of Wall Street.

The continuing resolution was needed because Congress had not passed any of the 12 annual appropriations that fund government programs.  Democrats in the House blame this on the president who had issued a pre-emptive threat earlier this year to veto any bill that spent more than he recommended.  President Bush expressed disappointment in the outcome, but praised the bill allowing the ban on offshore oil exploration and oil shale production to expire.

While most programs will be funded at fiscal 2008 levels under the continuing resolution, it does include the fiscal 2009 spending bills for Defense, Military Construction - Veterans' Affairs, and Homeland Security.  It also includes $22.9 billion for disaster relief, $2.5 billion for Pell Grants, $5.1 billion for low-income heating assistance, and a $25 billion loan program to bailout the auto industry.

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