Senate Republicans and Democrats plan to move forward this month with fiscal 2017 spending measures, and will ignore the ongoing struggle by Republicans to pass a budget resolution this year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday the Senate would soon turn to some of the one dozen appropriations measures needed to fund the federal government. They’ll avoid a partisan battle by using a top-line spending number of $1.07 trillion for discretionary spending, the number both sides agreed to last year.
“The plan is to get onto appropriations here in mid April and to stay on them almost entirely for the next 12 weeks and process as many of them as we can,” McConnell said after meeting with Republican senators Tuesday. “I’m optimistic the Democrats are going to be cooperative because they seem to want to get back to normal process as well.”
Senate Minority Leader, D-Nev., signaled his agreement when asked about McConnell’s plans by a female reporter.
“Amen sister, it sounds good to me,” Reid said. He added that even without a budget resolution, “that will be no problem” because of the two parties have already set the spending limit.
It’s been decades since the Senate and House have passed all 12 appropriations separately and on time to meet the Sept. 30 deadline.
The Senate will move forward even as House lawmakers struggle over whether to debate and vote on a budget resolution. Conservatives want to cut top line spending from $1.07 trillion to $1.04 trillion in order to adhere to spending caps put in place to reduce the deficit.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he plans to keep negotiating with the GOP conference when lawmakers return next week from recess. He said he’s not giving up on a budget, but House panels have already begun moving appropriations measures.
The Senate is somewhat limited in the number of bills it can move because it must wait for the House to act. Senators can proceed with about a half-dozen House appropriations measures that passed last year, using those as legislative vehicles for their bills.
“What I want to do is get started and we have the vehicles we need to get started,” McConnell said. “We may or may not get something from the House but we are prepared to go forward.”
