WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are inching closer to finishing 2005 appropriations and ending the session for the year.
Appropriators spent Friday afternoon putting the final touches on a $388 billion 2005 catchall spending bill funding most federal agencies, excluding the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon.
Floor votes in the House and Senate were expected late Friday or Saturday after lawmakers, aides and White House officials finished a final week-long effort to complete the bill while staving off lawmaker requests for additional pork and controversial additions.
Included in the onslaught are efforts opposed by the White House to stymie Bush administration plans to contract federal jobs to the private sector and another debate over whether to use unspent Defense Department money to pay for the development of Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility.
The bill is expected to include $577 million to continue development of the site, which is scheduled to open in 2010, and for nuclear energy labs.
Appropriators were also expected to include language reauthorizing an expiring federal statute overseeing satellite television.
House and Senate Energy Committee lawmakers also still hoped to include language establishing federal electricity standards in the bill.
