The chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees met Thursday, with Congress out of session, to work on reaching an agreement between the two chambers on a budget resolution for fiscal 2016.
“Republicans are committed to creating a balanced budget that will boost our nation’s economic growth and help restore the promise of a government that is more effective and accountable,” Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia said in a joint statement following their meeting in Washington. “We look forward to the Senate-House conference beginning its work as early as next week, followed by congressional passage of a joint concurrent budget resolution for our nation.”
The House and Senate passed versions of Republican budgets two weeks ago before lawmakers left Washington for two weeks.
Republicans face an April 15 deadline to reconcile the differences between their budgets and pass a resolution. Navigating the differences between the two documents will not be easy.
To meet the statutory deadline, which has been missed in the past, the budget chairmen would need to appoint conferees to a House-Senate conference, have them agree on spending levels, and then have the conference report passed by both chambers by Wednesday.
Both budget plans to repeal Obamacare and shift responsibility for much of the funding for Medicaid and other low-income programs to states to reach balance within the 10-year budget timeframe.
Republicans remain split, however, on funding levels for the Pentagon and how steeply to reduce spending on domestic programs.
