Minutes before the beginning of a conference between the House and Senate appropriations subcommittee members on the FY 2008 Commerce, Justice, Science bill, Congressional leaders announced an indefinite delay in the deliberations. At issue is language in the Senate bill that essentially prohibits the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from pursuing legal action against businesses that require employees to speak English while on the job.

The same evening (November 14), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) outlined a proposal that would package the 11 remaining spending bills into an omnibus measure. Congressional Democrats suggested "splitting the difference" between the total cost of their package and that of the President in his FY 2008 budget request. The overall difference is $22 billion. The Senate reaction to Reid's proposal may be found by linking to a CQ Today article at http://www.nlada.org/Civil/Civil_Update/Delayed_Spending_Bills. At this point, it is unknown whether, upon the Congress's return from the Thanksgiving recess, bills will move separately to the President, be bundled into an omnibus appropriation or just extended as a continuing resolution upon the December 14 expiration of the current one.