Partisan dispute brings abrupt end to appropriations markup

From CQPolitics.com: The House Appropriations Committee abruptly adjourned in chaos Thursday before acting on two big domestic spending bills, after Republicans tried to force the committee to take up a bill covering the Interior Department they believe could be used to lower fuel prices. The Interior-Environment spending bill would provide $27.9 billion for the Interior Department, the EPA, and other environmental and cultural agencies. It would spend $1.3 billion more than Congress provided in fiscal 2008. The fates of all three fiscal 2009 spending bills were left in limbo.