Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and new ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Wednesday pledged to cooperate on creating a biennial budget and appropriations process.
At an organizational meeting of the committee, Thompson announced a joint hearing with the Budget Committee next Wednesday to consider the "budget reform process." The bill would require Congress to adopt a two-year budget resolution and pass two-year appropriations legislation.
The new bill, sponsored by Thompson, Lieberman and Budget Chairman Domenici, is similar to one the Governmental Affairs panel approved in the 105th Congress by a 13-1 vote.
Thompson also said the committee would take up reauthorization of the independent counsel statute, which expires in June, but he gave little indication what form, if any, he wants a new statute to take.
Thompson said he preferred to "avoid last-minute solutions," but said he had hopes to put more time between the end of the presidential impeachment trial and the additional days of hearings needed to consider the statute.
"I don't think the world will come to an end if it lapses for a few months without an alternative, if an alternative is what we want," he said.
Noting the "rocky" party relations resulting from the 1997 investigation of President Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign finances, Lieberman, who this month replaced former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, as the panel's ranking member, pledged a "return to that bipartisanship" of previous sessions of Congress.
"We've got a new team and we're ready to go forward with you," Lieberman told Thompson.
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