[Page S16108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to provide an 
initial report on the budgetary effect of the conference report to 
accompany H.R. 2673, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2004, 
otherwise referred to as the omnibus appropriation bill.
  While I will share scoring on these individual bills compared to each 
subcommittee's 302(b) allocation during later debate, allow me to 
summarize where this bill stands relative to the 2004 budget resolution 
as it applies in the Senate.
  Combined with the other six appropriation bills already enacted for 
2004 as well as the 2004 Iraq supplemental, this conference report 
would set total non-emergency discretionary funding for 2004 at 
$791.023 billion in budget authority and $862.889 billion in outlays. 
Because it does not include sufficient offsets to pay for the 
additional spending included within, this conference report exceeds the 
discretionary allocations and caps provided by the budget resolution 
($784.675 billion in budget authority and $861.084 billion in outlays) 
by $6.348 in budget authority and $1,805 billion in outlays. Therefore, 
Budget Act points of order (under sections 302(f) and 311) and a budget 
resolution (section 405(b)) point of order apply against the bill. 
Other budget resolution points of order apply as well, but they are of 
a more incidental nature.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a table displaying the 
budget Committee scoring of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

2004 APPROPRIATIONS INCLUDING H.R. 2673, THE CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS
           ACT, 2004--SPENDING COMPARISONS--CONFERENCE REPORT
                     [Fiscal year 2004, $ millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Budget
                                                 authority     Outlays
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discretionary.................................      791,023      862,889
Budget Resolution allocation/cap..............      784,675      861,084
                                               -------------------------
      Difference..............................        6,348        1,805
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Totals adjusted for consistency with scorekeeping conventions.
Prepared by SBC Majority Staff, 12/9/2003.



                          ____________________