Pat Dollard

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The Hill:

While Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress, a behind-the-scenes budget fight is brewing over an omnibus appropriations bill that lawmakers may need to consider quickly upon their return after the midterm election.

Lobbyists and congressional aides say Democratic appropriators are mulling a 12-bill omnibus to fund the government in 2011 after the current stopgap measure expires in early December.

Republicans complain that they are being shut out of negotiations and are sounding warnings that Democrats will try to jam a $1 trillion bill through Congress immediately following the midterm elections.

“We have not been told a single thing,” a House GOP aide said. “There has not been one phone call from the majority to us.”

Several lobbyists said Republicans haven’t been involved in discussions and are predicting a partisan battle in the lame-duck session over the omnibus.

Election-year politics and concerns over spending prevented Democrats from passing any of the 12 annual appropriations bills before lawmakers left Washington at the end of September. Congress passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep the federal government running only through Dec. 3, meaning lawmakers will have to act quickly in the post-election lame-duck session, which begins Nov. 15.

While Republicans have pushed for appropriations bills to be considered individually, the two most likely scenarios are some kind of catch-all spending bill or another continuing resolution that would fund the government into the 112th Congress. An omnibus comprising all the bills, however, could be politically difficult, since it would push the top-line spending amount past $1 trillion.

The GOP is already hammering Democrats for pushing tax cut votes until after the election, and alarm about a looming $1 trillion spending bill could wreak havoc for lawmakers on the campaign trail.

The politics of the debate will also be affected by whichever party wins control of the House in November.