On December 26, 2007, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ( H.R. 2764 ), into law ( P.L. 110-161 ). This act incorporated 11 of the 12 FY2008 appropriations bills; the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008, was included as Division K of the act. The THUD appropriations act provided $103.6 billion (after rescissions and other adjustments) in total budgetary resources, $4.0 billion more than the FY2007 level. DOT received $65.5 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion over FY2007. HUD received $37.6 billion, $1.4 billion over the FY2007 level. In an exchange of amendments between the Senate and the House, Congress converted the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, 2008, into the Consolidated Appropriations bill, 2008, and completed action on the new bill during December 17-19, 2007. Prior to that, on November 14, 2007, the conference committee on the FY2008 THUD appropriations bill ( H.R. 3074 ) had reported a conference agreement ( H.Rept. 110-446 ) on November 13, 2007, and the House had approved the agreement on November 14, 2007. The conference agreement recommended $105.8 billion (after rescissions and other adjustments), $6.2 billion more than the FY2007 enacted funding level, and $5.5 billion over the Administration's budget request. The President threatened to veto the bill for exceeding the requested funding level. The Senate did not take up the agreement. During the period between the beginning of FY2008 (October 1, 2007) and the signing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, Congress provided funding through a series continuing resolutions, generally at FY2007 funding levels. On September 12, 2007, the Senate passed H.R. 3074 , which provides $105.9 billion (after rescissions and other adjustments) for transportation and housing and urban development appropriations for FY2008. The Senate Committee on Appropriations had reported a draft of the legislation (in the form of S. 1789 ) on July 16, 2007. The committee recommended a total of $104.7 billion (after rescissions and other adjustments); $1.2 billion was added to the bill during deliberations on the Senate floor for highway bridge repair and replacement, in response to concerns about the integrity of bridges raised by the collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minnesota on August 1, 2007. This is $5.9 billion (6%) more than the comparable amount for FY2007, and $5.6 billion (6%) more than requested for FY2008. On July 24, 2007, the House passed H.R. 3074 , which provides $104.4 billion (after rescissions and other adjustments) in THUD appropriations for FY2008. This is $4.4 billion (4%) more than the comparable amount provided for FY2007, and $4.1 billion (4%) more than requested for FY2008. The President's net FY2008 request for the programs covered by this appropriations bill was $100.3 billion (after scorekeeping adjustments). This was $300 million (less than 1%) over the net total provided for FY2007. The DOT request was $64.5 billion, $1.3 billion (2%) more than the amount provided for FY2007. This increase was largely for highway (net $1.7 billion increase) and transit (net $447 million increase) programs. These increases reflected the increase in the FY2008 authorized funding level over the FY2007 level for these two programs, which receive almost all of their funding from transportation trust funds. However, the request did not provide the full authorized funding level: it was $631 million below the authorized level for highway programs and $309 million below the authorized level for transit programs. The HUD request was $35.6 billion, $1.0 billion (3%) less than the amount provided for FY2007. This reduction reflected the Administration's continued effort to reduce or eliminate funding for a number of HUD programs that it regards as ineffective or inefficient. Secretary Jackson's introductory letter to the FY2008 HUD budget summary document noted, "In a budget season marked by the President's goal to continue to support what works and cut the Federal budget deficit, the FY2008 HUD budget request demonstrates an effort to prioritize funding towards programs with measurable, documented results." The Administration's FY2008 budget request included spending reductions that had also been proposed by the Administration in previous budget requests, without success. These proposed reductions from FY2007 funding included roughly $1 billion from reductions in several HUD programs and elimination of several other programs, and roughly $1 billion from cuts to several DOT programs. Among the programs proposed for reductions or elimination were DOT's Airport Grants (-$764 million), Amtrak (-$494 million), and subsidies for air service to small communities (-$59 million) programs; HUD's Community Development Funds (-$735 million), Housing for the Elderly (-$160 million), and Housing for the Disabled (-$112 million) programs; and HUD's HOPE VI, Rural Housing and Economic Development, Brownfields Redevelopment, and Section 108 Loan Guarantees programs, for which no funding was requested (-$130 million total). Both the House and the Senate have passed versions of H.R. 3074 , the FY2008 appropriations bill, for THUD. Both chambers rejected the Administration's proposed reductions, and provided increases for both DOT and HUD over both the FY2007 levels and the FY2008 requested levels. The House-passed version of H.R. 3074 would provide a total of $104.4 billion, $4.1 billion (4%) more than requested and $4.4 billion (4%) more than the FY2007 funding. Within that total the bill provides $65.5 billion for DOT ($1.1 billion more than requested and $2.4 billion more than FY2007), $38.7 billion for HUD ($3.1 billion more than requested and $2.0 billion more than FY2007), and $235 million for the related agencies ($1 million more than requested and $12 million more than FY2007). The Senate-passed version of H.R. 3074 would provide a total of $105.9 billion, $5.6 billion (6%) more than requested and $6.3 billion (6%) more than the FY2007 level. Within that total, the bill provides $66.9 billion for DOT ($2.4 billion more than requested and $3.8 billion more than the FY2007 level), $38.7 billion for HUD ($3.1 billion more than requested and $2.1 billion over the FY2007 level), and $235 million for the other independent agencies ($1 million more than requested and $12 million over the FY2007 level). The Senate bill's major funding difference with the House bill is in providing more funding for DOT; most of that additional funding is for repairs to bridges in response to the collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minnesota after passage of the House version of the bill. The conference agreement on H.R. 3074 recommended a total of $105.8 billion. This is $5.5 billion (6%) more than requested and $6.2 billion (6%) more than the FY2007 enacted level. The agreement recommends $66.7 billion for DOT, $2.2 billion more than requested and $3.5 billion more than provided in FY2007. The conferees recommended $38.7 billion for HUD, $3.1 billion more than the budget request and $2.4 billion more than the amount provided in FY2007. The conference agreement was reported on November 13, 2007. It was brought to the House floor on November 14, 2007, and approved by a vote of 270-147 later that day. The primary topics of discussion during consideration of the agreement had to do with the time available to review the bill and additions made by conferees. Some members complained that not only had the rule that members should be given three days to review a bill before voting on it been waived, but also that the informal practice that members be given at least 24 hours to review a bill was being ignored. There were also criticisms of the number of earmarks in the bill, and of the addition by conferees of some earmarks that had not been in either the House- or Senate-passed versions of the bill (a practice known as "air-dropping" earmarks). Complaints were also voiced about a provision (Section 193) added by conferees that would prohibit any funds in the agreement from being used to provide budget justifications to any congressional committee, other than the appropriations committees, prior to May 31, 2008. In 2006, the Office of Management and Budget began directing agencies to make their budget justifications available to the public, and to post the justifications on the Internet, within two weeks of the transmittal of those materials to Congress in early February. A similar provision was inserted in the conference agreement on the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006 (TTHUD) ( P.L. 109-115 , Section 182), and was added to the Senate-passed version of the FY2007 TTHUD appropriations bill ( H.R. 5576 ); that bill was never passed by the Senate, and the prohibition was not included in the continuing resolution that provided funding for those agencies for FY2007 ( P.L. 110-5 ).