The two Appropriations Chairs, [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-CA) and [sw: Thad Cochran] (R-MS), are meeting to get the emergency supplemental to the President and have agreed to pare down the Senate’s earmarks to make the bill fit Bush’s $92.2 billion maximum demand. That’s good news, although reading the Associated Press article makes you think that they’re cutting A LOT more money out than is actually being cut:

An additional $648 billion obtained by Sen. [sw: Robert Byrd], D-W.Va., to beef up security at U.S. ports is to be dropped, while $1.2 billion in aid for the Gulf Coast fishing and seafood industry obtained by Sen. [sw: Richard Shelby], R-Ala., will be sharply scaled back.

I think they meant to say “million”.