Senator offers deal on debt limits, spending caps

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Thursday that if House Republicans want to attach a debt limit increase to the fiscal 2002 supplemental--and thereby avoid a potentially tough floor vote--they are going to have to accept a fiscal 2003 spending cap of $768 billion.

Otherwise, Conrad said, Republicans in the House will have to find a way to move the debt limit separately.

"More than one group has leverage here," Conrad said. "[$768 billion] is what we want. What do they [House Republicans] need?"

Senate Democrats have said previously that they do not want the debt limit tucked into the supplemental, as House Republicans prefer; rather, they have stated their desire to see the GOP leadership follow the Senate's lead last week by passing a $450 billion, stand-alone, debt limit increase.

But Conrad said the possibility of getting the administration and House Republicans to back down on their budget demands--and accept roughly $9 billion more in spending that Senate Democrats and many Republicans want--was tantalizing enough to let the House off the hook on the debt limit issue.

"We all understand that it's possible to deal with the debt limit and budget on the supplemental," said Conrad, noting that a recent ruling by the Senate parliamentarian opens the door to deal with the various issues in a supplemental conference report.

House Republicans have maintained opposition to moving a debt limit increase on the floor as a way of protecting their own lawmakers from Democratic charges that last year's massive tax cut was fiscally imprudent and that Republicans have no plans to balance the budget.

However, conservatives in the House said this week that they would prefer being forced to vote on a stand-alone, debt limit bill to caving to Senate demands for more money.

Conrad's not-so-veiled threats came after he lost by one vote a motion to waive a point of order against a 2003 budget cap amendment pending on the defense authorization bill. Conrad said the 59-40 vote showed many Republicans supported the $768 billion figure backed by Senate Democrats and would be willing to defy the administration in appropriations battles later this year.

Among the Republicans who voted with Democrats on the budget issue were Senate Appropriations ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Senate Budget ranking member Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

Meanwhile, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who led the opposition to the Conrad budget deal, said he and the administration would resist any efforts to increase spending over the president's preferred total of $759 billion. "The president has made it clear that he will enforce the budget with vetoes," Gramm said.