House appropriators plan to craft a fiscal 2009 omnibus package that President-elect Barack Obama could sign early next year -- a move that could ease attempts to increase funding or roll back Bush-era regulations, Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said yesterday.

Before launching into a new agenda next year, one of the first orders of business for the new Congress will be dealing with the unfinished task of funding the federal government for the rest of 2009. The fiscal 2009 and 2010 spending bills will be some of the first real tests of the priorities for the Obama administration and expanded Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. The appropriations bills also present an immediate opportunity to reverse controversial environmental decisions in the last Congress -- such as offshore drilling or oil shale leasing -- or deny funding for new regulations the Bush administration pushes through in its final days, such as controversial rules to scale back some protections in the Endangered Species Act.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) will step down in January as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a move that initiates a leadership shuffle on Capitol Hill.