WASHINGTON — To the surprise of a few community development lobbyists, the additional money Congress initially appropriated for the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions fund has made it through the convoluted and conflicted federal appropriations process.

The large omnibus spending bill which Congress passed this week included $94 million for the fund. This is the first time since 2001 that Congress has increased the fund's appropriations, according to the CDFI Coalition, an organization of community development financial institutions, though Congress has never cut the appropriations as much as the Bush Administration requested and declined to take up an earlier administration proposal to end the program. Congress also declined a previous administrative attempt to roll its funding into programs administered by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Treasury has reported that the program received 225 applications for the Fiscal Year 2008 round of grants, up 122.3% over last year's round. The applicants requested an aggregate of over $205.5 million in assistance, which also increased from last year's round by 149.5%, the department said.