Senate and House of Representatives prepared to select negotiators Wednesday to narrow differences on competing budget plans, a needed move that comes after missing the legal deadline to have already sent a compromise spending plan back for a vote.
The meeting of negotiators from each chamber is called a conference committee, and by law Congress was to have passed a Budget Conference Report outlining their compromise by April 15. That allows the appropriations committees of each chamber to beginning determining how authorized money is actually spent.
When the GOP captured both chambers of Congress last year, members promised a break from the practices of divided government and pledged a budget process that ran on time. That’s been more difficult than they imagined.
“When Republicans ushered in this new Congress, the American people were promised a government that works. Yet here we are at the deadline required under the law for a Budget Conference Committee Report to have been passed by Congress – and all we have to show for it is closed negotiations between House and Senate Republicans,” Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement highlighting the GOP’s miss.
In a speech on the Senate floor before a vote authorizing the appointment on negotiators, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., looked past the missed deadline and highlighted that Republicans had offered a budget that balances over a 10-year window, reining in spending.
“Last month the Senate Budget Committee took an important first step in helping to change the way we do business here in Washington by reporting out a balanced budget,” Enzi said. “This is crucial as we begin to restore the trust of the American people.”
The House and Senate budget proposals are far apart from President Barack Obama’s proposed budget. Both envision the dismantling of his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Whatever compromise the House and Senate work out is still likely to face a veto from Obama when Congress begins passing spending bills, and Republicans will need the help of Democrats to override any veto.