Senate Dems Unveil $1.1 Trillion Budget
Politico reports:
Senate Democrats began rolling out Tuesday a year-end, government-wide spending bill that cuts more than $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s 2011 requests, even as it defies earmark bans –- or veto threats over Joint Strike Fighter engines.
Filling more than 1, 900 pages and costing $1.1 trillion, the measure is sure to invite criticism as a last stand by the Senate’s old bulls before the more conservative, tea-party-oriented Congress takes hold in January. But weeks of bipartisan work have gone into the effort to meet spending targets previously embraced by the Republican leadership and to salvage something from the failed budget process this year.
The Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security have the greatest stake in the appropriations that are permitted above 2010 levels, but the bill also contains new education and health spending in addition to billions for a shortfall in Pell Grants for low-income college students.
The first test — getting to 60 votes to limit debate — could come as early as Saturday. The $857 billion price tag for President Barack Obama’s tax-cut deal with Republicans makes the task harder. And if the Senate falls short of 60 votes, it will either have to embrace a version of a stripped-down, House-passed continuing resolution for 2011 or simply punt the fight into January when Republicans will have more power.
Even before the official release Tuesday afternoon, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, attacked Democrats for ignoring, he said, the “clear will expressed by voters this past election.” And New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a senior Republican on both the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committees, said a short-term continuing resolution would be preferable at this stage give the shortness of time before the holiday recess.
The fact that someone of Gregg’s standing is considering this option is a worry for the White House, whose top priority has been to avoid any such potential government-shutdown fight so early next year.
For this reason, the administration has given Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D—Hawaii) little public support in crafting his omnibus now and put its chips instead on the simpler, less costly House version.
As passed last week, the measure is salted with concessions won by Obama for his priorities—including expansive new authority for agency heads to move money around. But there is wide agreement that a year-long CR is an inefficient way to manage the government and Inouye is scornful of what he calls a “cop-out” by Congress and “chief executive’s bill.”
“The omnibus measure is not perfect,” Inouye said in a written statement accompanying his bill. “But it represents a far superior alternative to the continuing resolution.”
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