Editorial: Spending Bills -- Missed it by that much

Congress has only a handful of duties it absolutely must perform. One of them is to pass the 13 spending bills that fund the government's operations by the Oct. 1 fiscal year.

Because of institutional dawdling, political infighting and an increasingly attenuated work schedule to allow long weekends in their districts, the lawmakers rarely do.

This year is no exception. Congress departed for Thanksgiving with seven spending bills covering 11 departments and dozens of agencies still outstanding. And it will deal with this mess in its customary fashion: Take all the unfinished business and wrap it into a single omnibus -- a fancy word for "catch-all" spending bill and pass that.

This year's is a monster -- $373 billion to fund everything from crime fighting and veterans' health care to foreign aid and highway construction. The problem with these monster bills is that they are too big for legislative scrutiny and debate given smaller measures; they get loaded up with pork to line up votes for passage; and as deadlines come and go, the increasingly desperate leadership overrides Congress' own judgment.

Instead of going home for the year, Congress is coming back the second week in December to vote on its omnibus bill. The House will likely pass it; the Senate may not because many senators are still fighting mad over the compromises the leadership made with the White House.

But not to worry.

Congress has given itself until Jan. 30 to act by passing a continuing resolution that funds the government at last year's levels until then.

The catch-all bill includes more than the $373 billion in so- called discretionary spending that Congress must specifically approve each year. The actual size of the bill is $820 billion because it includes automatic entitlement spending.

This could well be the largest single spending bill Congress has ever passed. It will be a record of some kind -- but not a proud one.