Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday sent a letter to Republicans demanding a bipartisan meeting to lift the “sequester” spending caps mandated under the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his deputies said in the letter that the Budget Control Act, which brought on the unpopular sequester, was meant to bring about bipartisan budget talks. Those talks should happen now, Democrats said, to raise spending levels.