House, Senate budgeteers seek to hammer out spending plan

Top House and Senate budget writers will meet as early as Tuesday to try to hammer out deals on remaining fiscal 2005 budget resolution sticking points, aides said.

A spokeswoman for Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., said he planned to meet early this week with House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, with the expectation of resolving most outstanding issues, although she said floor action was unlikely until next week. Aides do not expect a conference agreement on the resolution to be ready for the floor this week, given the complexities of differences between House- and Senate-approved versions.

"I'm not sure even if we get an agreement this week if there would be time" to take it up on the floor, a senior Republican aide said.

The House is tentatively scheduled to take the measure up this week and the Senate next week, although a House GOP aide said the House is more likely to act next week, too.

Even if Nussle and Nickles are able to resolve most differences, a final compromise on the biggest obstacle -- pay/go budget enforcement rules -- is likely to require leadership intervention. A Senate GOP aide said a bicameral leadership meeting to discuss the matter had not yet been scheduled this week but did not rule it out.

In an attempt to woo Senate moderates and deficit hawks, an agreement may include reinstatement of expired pay/go offset rules for future tax cuts other than those expiring this year, such as the $1,000 child tax credit. However, some GOP moderates, such as Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, oppose a compromise and want to ensure all tax cuts are offset with revenue increases elsewhere.

House Republican leaders and the White House are opposed to any roadblocks to future tax cut legislation, although before the Easter recess they said they would try to reach a compromise in the interest of completing a budget resolution.

The annual resolution provides a blueprint for spending and tax bills considered later in the year, and this year it is expected to contain provisions easing passage of politically sensitive legislation to increase the statutory debt limit above the current $7.4 trillion cap.

Senate aides said GOP leaders might use time during Tuesday's policy luncheon and while floor action is focused on the asbestos bill to talk with senators on both sides of the aisle -- including GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, George Voinovich of Ohio and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- who want to ensure some tax cuts are subject to budget enforcement.

Democrats involved in the pay/go discussions could include Sens. Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and possibly Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, aides said. The original Senate amendment to reinstate pay/go rules for all new entitlement spending and tax cuts passed with four Republican votes -- McCain, Chafee, Snowe and Collins -- while Miller was the sole Democrat to vote against it.