Senate to Vote on Spending Bills
The Hill reports:
Senate Democrats and Republicans will face off Tuesday on critical votes that will be a key marker on the budget negotiations aimed at averting a government shutdown.
Leaders in the chamber are expected to hold a vote Tuesday on a House-passed Republican proposal to cut $57 billion from 2010 spending levels, as well as a Democratic alternative that would cut $6.5 billion.
After losing round one of the budget battle last week, Democrats are hoping that the votes will represent a turning point in the budget talks. The competing bills have little chance of attracting the necessary 60 votes for passage, but Democrats are hopeful they’ll get more yes votes than the GOP. If that happens, Democrats argue, Republicans need to come closer to their budget-cutting number.
Both sides have targeted centrists in the other party to encourage defections. But leaders are playing defense as well, nervous about mavericks in their own caucuses who could give rhetorical ammunition to the enemy.
“It’s kind of like a game of chicken, and the question is which side is more united and determined,” said Bruce Cain, director of the University of California Washington Center.
Cain said the test votes are “going to be important.”
“You can imagine there will be real pressure on Democrats running in more centrist states,” he added.
William Hoagland, a former senior aide to ex-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said the votes would shape the negotiations leading up to the expiration of the current government funding resolution on March 18.
“I think it’s critical that [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] and [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] hold both their caucuses on those initial votes to prove to each side that neither one has the answer to force the negotiation that’s going forward,” he said.
Aides to Reid and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) met with about 40 labor and liberal groups Monday to encourage them to wage a grassroots campaign against the House proposal, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The most damaging outcome for Democratic leaders and the White House would be if Democratic centrists voted for the House measure, which Reid has called “draconian” and has triggered a veto threat from President Obama.
Republican leaders would receive a painful blow if centrists from Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois and/or Alaska rejected the House package of spending cuts as too extreme or supported the Democratic alternative that the GOP has called insufficient.
It is unlikely that Susan Collins (R-Maine), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) or Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will support the Democratic plan, but they might balk at the House GOP proposal.
Click here to read more.
