It looks like the first spending bill that will be approved for the next fiscal year is the budget for the Legislative Branch.  But there were some other things jammed in that bill as well by Democrats.

The most interesting item added was a plan to keep the government running after the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

Democrats obviously decided they didn't want to deal with that as a stand alone bill.  It's not an unusual maneuver, as the Republicans did the same thing back in 2006, adding the "continuing resolution" to a Defense budget measure.

The final deal was sealed on Thursday afternoon, and a vote was quickly scheduled on Friday morning in the House. 

In other words, if you blink, you might miss this bill.

Going through the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, several things caught my eye, so I thought would list some of them here:

$520,000 for expenses for the "United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control"

A ban on money going to ACORN: "None of the funds made available by this joint resolution or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations"

And then there was one section labeled, "Miscellaneous Items."

"For miscellaneous items, $19,145,000, of which up to $500,000 shall be made available for a pilot program for mailings of postal patron postcards by Senators for the purpose of providing notice of a town meeting by a Senator in a county (or equivalent unit of local government)
at which the Senator will personally attend: Provided, That any amount allocated to a Senator for such mailing shall not exceed 50 percent of the cost of the mailing and the remaining cost shall be paid by the Senator from other funds available to the Senator."

The Library of Congress had a few interesting items as well:

$3,554,000 for start-up costs at the Ft. Meade storage facilities;
$7,677,000 for the National Digital, Infrastructure and Preservation Program;
$5,317,000 for Department of State capital security cost-sharing;
$700,000 for the Global Legal Information Network;
$2,000,000 for support ofthe new custodial services contract;
$7,315,000 for the digital collections and educational curricula program;
$750,000 for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission;
$15,000,000 for the technology infrastructure improvements initiative;
$250,000 to implement the new Civil Rights History Project Act;
$2,213,000 for the Veterans Oral History program;
$200,000 for the Durham Museum digitization program; and
$150,000 for the American Folklife Center Fellowship program.

The Durham Museum digitization program was one that was noted in debate a few months ago.  It is the only earmark in the bill, which goes to a museum in Nebraska.

The $200,000 involved will help the museum digitize its historic photographs of the region, which they will then send to the Library of Congress.

I bet you might have a museum in your town that could use a few bucks like that too, eh?

Lastly, among the details that jumped out is something that is not unusual, but it's always a bit of shock to see it in print:

"PAYMENT TO WIDOWS AND HEIRS OF DECEASED MEMBERS OF CONGRESS"
For a payment to Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of Edward M. Kennedy, late a Senator from Massachussetts, $174,000."

If you would like to read through the whole measure, you can find it at http://is.gd/3DTRs