FYI: The Housing and Urban Development budget for fiscal year 2003 just keeps getting smaller. Congressional Quarterly reported this week that Senate negotiators have tentatively agreed on revised ’03 allocations for the 11 spending bills still pending in Congress. Legislators sought to reconcile the bills the previous Senate Appropriations Committee passed with more trim House versions. The HUD-Veteran’s Affairs budget took one of the biggest hits: It’s now down to $90.35 billion, which is $1.1 billion below the Senate’s earlier proposal and even $640 million under what the House has put forward. Housing lobbyists in Washington aren’t yet sure where exactly the cuts will come from within the bill, but the buzz is that HUD programs will bleed the most. Labor-Health and Human Services shrunk the most, by $2.7 billion. [1/10/03]