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The Week Ahead: Full House and Senate to
Consider Budget Blueprints
Sunday, March
29, 2009
4:00 PM
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The full
House and Senate this week are scheduled to consider their respective budget resolutions laying out the
parameters of this year's tax and spending legislation,
including fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations bills that will
fund the federal government's various departments and
programs beginning on October 1, 2009.
The two chambers'
Budget Committees approved the blueprints last week on
party-line votes (24 to 15 in the House and 13 to 10 in the
Senate).
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Both measures, for
the most part, track President Obama's
budget
outline released in February, including a focus on
long-term deficit reduction and accommodating his health care,
alternative energy, and education proposals, although the
specifics of these initiatives will be left to the committees
of jurisdiction to draft later this year. (Congress' annual
budget resolution, which does not have the force of law,
contains only broad fiscal policy objectives as well as
spending limitations such as an overall discretionary cap for
the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.) |
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Discrepancies
between the White House, House, and Senate budgets remain,
however. For example, House and Senate Budget Committee
Chairmen John Spratt (D-SC) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) trimmed $7
billion and $17 billion, respectively, from the president's
$1.096 trillion topline non-emergency discretionary spending
request for FY 2010. In addition, the House's budget allows for
filibuster
protections for the president's
health care, education, and
possibly
cap-and-trade proposals, while the Senate version
excludes so-called "reconciliation" protections
altogether. These
differences will have to be resolved during a House-Senate
conference later this spring.
On Thursday, House
Democratic Deputy Whip Joe Crowley of New York said that the
leadership does not intend to use reconciliation procedures
for cap-and-trade legislation, though there remains talk as to
whether the House's budget leaves the door open for such a
scenario.
"The budget
resolution does not provide reconciliation instructions for
cap-and-trade," Crowley said on the House floor. "However,
it does provide for legislation encouraging alternative energy
sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,"
he added.
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Unlike the
president's cap-and-trade proposal, House and Senate Democratic leaders have
expressed more of a willingness to move a health care reform package
under the reconciliation process.
"I believe that it's absolutely essential that we come out of
this year with a substantial health care reform -- with
substantial health care reform legislation," House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said during a press conference on
Thursday. "I believe that that is best served by having
reconciliation in the package." Pelosi went on to say that the
leadership aims to address prevention, health information
technology, biomedical research, and community health center
outreach within a "robust" health care bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) sounded a more cautious tone during a conference
call with reporters on Wednesday, saying that he
believes a health care reconciliation bill should be
considered an option, but came short of hard-selling the
idea.
Even if
reconciliation protections are included in the final budget
resolution, it would be difficult for lawmakers to craft a
health care overhaul bill that would circumvent a "Byrd rule" point
of order. Senate Budget Chairman Conrad, who has continuously argued that
reconciliation should be used only for deficit reduction,
noted the potential dilemma earlier this week, saying that any
health care reform bill would look like "swiss cheese" after
the Byrd rule was applied to the measure on the Senate floor.
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© Copyright
Capitol Hill Reports, Inc. (2009). No claim to original government
works.
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