Senate leaders announced the members of the budget conference committee Wednesday evening, adding to the members from the House of Representatives named Tuesday.
The conferees will be tasked with negotiating the differences between the Republican budget resolutions passed by the House and Senate last month.
If negotiators can agree on a conference report, it will be sent back to both chambers for passage. The budget is not signed into law, but rather is an agreement on spending levels between chambers.
The statutory deadline for passage of the budget was Wednesday. Enzi suggested Wednesday that the conference would work this week and next, and said that final passage of the budget “will help make the government live within its means and set spending limits for our nation.” Missing the official deadline does not entail negative consequences.
Democrats chided Republicans for going past the deadline, even though Democrats did not pass budgets in most recent years.
“Here we are at the deadline required under the law for a Budget Conference Committee Report to have been passed by Congress — and all we have to show for it is closed negotiations between House and Senate Republicans,” Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.
Nevertheless, GOP leaders sounded confident in working toward the goal of passing a balanced-budget resolution.
The conference will feature all the Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Budget Committee:
Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the Budget Committee chairman.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa
Jeff Sessions, R-Al.
Mike Crapo, R-Ida.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Rob Portman, R-Ohio
Pat Toomey, R-Penn.
Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.
Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
David Perdue, R-Ga.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking member of the Budget Committee, who caucuses with Democrats.
Patty Murray, D-Wash.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Mark Warner, D-Va.
Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.,
On the House side, the conferees will be:
Tom Price, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fl.
Diane Black, R-Tenn.
Todd Rokita, R-Ind., the vice chairman of the committee.
John Moolenaar, R-Mich.
Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Gwen Moore, D-Wisc.
John Yarmuth, D-Ky.
