During this afternoon’s always entertaining colloquy between House Majority Leader Hoyer and Minority Whip Blunt on the House schedule, Rep. Hoyer indicated that the goal is to release the Omnibus Sunday night and vote as early as Monday night. He was very clear that this was a goal, which is code for it may slip. No big surprise there.

He didn’t give any specificity to what the bill will entail but it appears there will be shaving going on in all 11 bills, earmarks will be cut (a little) and that they may not hit the President’s target exactly. Certainly seems guaranteed that there will be additional funding for Veterans and also some emergency funding. We also understand sweeteners are being added to attract votes, such as energy project loan guarantees for nuclear power plants (courtesy of Sen. Domenici) but there will most certainly be all sorts of bi-partisan buried treasure in the thousands of pages of text. We shall see.

Another interesting twist. Just like last year, the already enacted Defense spending bill escapes any pruning – on earmarks or otherwise. So whether it’s the Ds or Rs in control, guns come before butter (in economics speak).

On the subject of earmarks, I want to call your attention to a recently released report on foreign aid spending that was mandated by Congress.  In it, they noted: “… excessive earmarking and Presidential initiatives frequently reduce resources available for other worthwhile activities and can be disruptive to maintaining coherency of development goals and strategies.” It is yet more evidence that earmarks cost more than just money; they make government less effective and efficient.