House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would force Republicans and Democrats to negotiate an end to the sequester that has tamped down discretionary spending over the last few years.
And if those talks failed, the sequester would end automatically anyway under the bill proposed by Democrats.
The bill from House Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is the Democrats’ latest effort aimed at forcing Republicans to give up the spending cuts that both sides agreed to in 2011.
Under Van Hollen’s bill, the two parties would have until Nov. 17 to pass a “sequester relief” law. If that deadline weren’t met, the law would automatically be changed to put in place the sequester relief plan offered in President Obama’s budget plan.
That budget plan called for about $74 billion more in discretionary spending in fiscal year 2016, which started on Oct. 1. That’s about a 7 percent increase in spending.
It seems unlikely the GOP would agree to support the Democratic bill that ensures more spending either way. But Republicans are expected to enter into negotiations this fall with Democrats that could result in higher spending.
Democrats have opposed Republican efforts to boost defense spending around the sequester caps, while leaving in place those caps for social spending that Democrats want to see increased. That opposition has prompted Democrats to oppose all spending legislation that fails to boost non-defense spending above the caps.
Getting Democrats to end their opposition is expected to involve some spending hikes, although it’s not known exactly what the GOP will have to propose to get a deal.
