But since emergency spending does not count toward those pesky caps, the current Congress is getting more creative.

The result was emergency spending of $34 billion in 1999 and $44 billion in 2000.

Soon after Sept. 11, both houses of Congress approved $40 billion in emergency spending.

The Administration has argued that the new security measures should be considered emergency spending.

The House also passed yet another emergency spending measure tonight.

The law says emergency spending is supposed to finance unforeseeable crises.

In previous budgets, the Administration has paid for that mission, now three years old, with "emergency" spending.

The high supply brings lower prices, and then Congress has to make up for the income shortfall with emergency spending.

But he said Congress should push for the war money to proceed through normal channels rather than be treated as emergency spending.

The four disparate groups would all receive money set aside in a special $5 billion "emergency spending" bill the Senate completed work on last week.