On December 26, 2007, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ( H.R. 2764 ) into law ( P.L. 110-161 ) as shown in Table 1 . This act includes the FY2008 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill, as well as 10 other appropriations bills, in addition to emergency military funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. Congressional leaders opted to use the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Appropriations bill, 2008 ( H.R. 2764 ) as the legislative vehicle for the FY2008 omnibus spending measure. In an exchange of amendments between the Senate and House, Congress completed action on H.R. 2764 during December 17-19, 2007. In P.L. 110-161 , Congress has appropriated $54.637 billion for the federal departments, bureaus, agencies, administrations, offices and activities funded under the CJS appropriations bill. Congress had previously passed continuing resolutions to fund those departments and agencies in the absence of the regular FY2008 CJS appropriation. Regarding the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, Representative David Obey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had an explanatory statement on the FY2008 omnibus spending measure inserted into the December 17 th Congressional Record that included detailed funding tables and additional information. In January 2008, the House Appropriations Committee issued a committee print on the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, that includes legislative text and the explanatory statement (with some modifications) that was previously inserted into the Congressional Record . Table 2 shows funding levels for the departments and related agencies currently under the jurisdictions of the House and Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittees for FY2007 enacted, FY2008 requested, FY2008 House-reported and -passed, FY2008 Senate-reported and -passed, and FY2008 enacted. Not shown in Table 2 are enacted and proposed rescissions of "unobligated balances" and "prior year appropriations." Those rescissions, however, are given below in summary Table 11 at report's end. In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ( P.L. 110-161 ), Congress has provided $54.637 billion in CJS appropriations, a 3.4% increase over the FY2007 enacted level and a 2.2% increase over the Administration's request. For the Department of Commerce, the act includes $6.857 billion, or $231.8 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 3.5%) and $260.7 million more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 4.0%). For the Department of Justice, the act includes $23.592 billion, or $381.5 million more than the enacted FY2007 level (an increase of 1.6%) and $1.244 billion more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 5.6%). For science agencies, the act includes $23.380 billion, or $1.173 billion more than the enacted FY2007 level (an increase of 5.3%) but $364.3 million less than the President's FY2008 request (a decrease of 1.5%). For related agencies, the act includes $808.8 million, or $8 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 1.0%) and $46.2 million more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 6.1%). By comparison, Table 2 shows that the Administration's FY2008 request included $53.45 billion for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, certain science agencies, and related agencies, or about a 1.1% increase over amounts appropriated by Congress for FY2007. The requested appropriation included $6.596 billion for the Department of Commerce (a 0.4% decrease compared to the FY2007 enacted level), $22.348 billion for the Department of Justice (a 3.7% decrease), $23.744 billion for science agencies (a 6.9% increase), and $762.5 million for related agencies (a 4.8% decrease). In addition to these amounts, in February 2008, the Administration has requested another $146.7 million for Justice as part of the FY2008 Global War on Terror Supplemental. The House Appropriations Committee ordered reported an FY2008 CJS appropriations bill ( H.R. 3093 ) on July 12, 2007. The reported bill included $55.975 billion for FY2008, or $3.132 billion more than the FY2007 enacted level, and $2.621 billion more than the FY2007 request. The House passed H.R. 3093 (amended) on July 26, 2007. The House-passed bill included $10 million less than the reported bill, but it also included a provision that would have increased the amounts available for obligation under the Crime Victims Fund by a like amount. Table 2 shows that the House-passed bill would have provided $55.965 billion in FY2008 funding for the departments, bureaus, agencies, administrations, commissions, and offices under the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee's jurisdiction. By comparison, the House bill would have provided a 5.9% increase over the FY2007 enacted level, and a 4.7% increase over the Administration's FY2008 request, but $1.1% less than the Senate mark. For the Department of Commerce, the House-passed bill would have provided $7.018 billion, or $393.7 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 5.9%) and $422.6 million more than the FY2008 request (an increase of 6.4%). For the Department of Justice, the House-passed bill would have provided $23.974 billion, or $763.8 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 3.3%) and $1.626 billion more than the FY2008 request (an increase of 7.3%). For science agencies, the House-passed bill would have provided $24.127 billion, or $1.92 billion more than the FY2008 enacted level (an increase of 8.6%) and $383.1 million more than the FY2008 request (an increase of 1.6%). For related agencies, the House-passed bill would have provided $845.7 million, or $44.9 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 5.6%) and $83.2 million more than the FY2008 request (an increase of 10.9%). The Senate Appropriations Committee reported an FY2008 CJS appropriations bill ( S. 1745 ; S.Rept. 110-124 ) on June 29, 2007. The Senate-reported bill included $56.58 billion for FY2008 for CJS departments and agencies, $3.738 billion more than the FY2007 enacted level of $52.843 billion and $3.226 billion more than the FY2008 request of $53.45 billion. The Senate amended the House-passed bill ( H.R. 3093 ) with the text of S. 1745 , amended that language during three days of consideration, and passed H.R. 3093 on October 16, 2007. The Senate-passed bill would have provided $57.7 billion for FY2008, or $4.858 billion more than the FY2007 enacted level and $4.346 billion more than the Administration's FY2008 request. The Senate-passed amount included $1 billion in emergency funding for National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) return to flight initiative. In addition, the Senate-passed bill was amended to include a provision that would have exempted certain returning H-2B (foreign temporary nonagricultural) workers from the H-2B annual cap of 66,000 visas. The provision would have exempted from the FY2008 H-2B visa cap aliens who had been present in the United States as H-2B nonimmigrants in any one of the previous three fiscal years. The House-passed bill included no similar provision. Table 2 shows that the Senate-passed version of H.R. 3093 would have provided $56.7 billion in FY2008 CJS appropriations. This amount included $1 billion in emergency funding for NASA's return to flight initiative. The Senate bill would have provided a 7.3% increase over the FY2007 enacted level and a 6.1% increase over the Administration's request. For the Department of Commerce, the Senate-passed bill included $7.289 billion, or $664.5 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 10.0%) and $693.4 million more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 10.5%) . For the Department of Justice, the Senate-passed bill included $24.493 billion, or $1.282 billion more than the enacted FY2007 level (an increase of 5.5%) and $2.145 billion more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 9.6%). For science agencies, the Senate-passed bill included $25.019 billion, or $2.812 billion more than the enacted FY2007 level (an increase of 12.7%) and $1.275 billion more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 5.4%). For related agencies, the Senate-passed bill included $899.7 million, or $99 million more than the FY2007 enacted level (an increase of 12.4%) and $137.2 million more than the President's FY2008 request (an increase of 18.0%). In late November 2007, a conference meeting on H.R.