The House and Senate will not give final approval to the budget deal until after Memorial Day, since Senate Democrats late Thursday objected to a plan for the House to cast a quick vote and leave town while the Senate was still voting, Senate Democratic and Republican sources said Thursday.
In addition to the Senate objections over the process of voting, the sources said, Senate Minority Leader Daschle was so angry at the failure to pass emergency disaster assistance to his home state of South Dakota and other states, that he was not inclined to cooperate in any effort to ease an adjournment of the House.
Daschle told reporters there were still differences between the House and Senate on the substance of the final budget resolution, adding that Democrats also objected to House plans to strip certain Senate language from the budget deal.
Even though the House was unable to formally adjourn Thursday night, there is no thought being given to attempting to pass the budget plan before Memorial Day, a House Republican aide said.
House Budget Chairman Kasich downplayed the significance of any delay. "The budget is essentially a done deal," Kasich told reporters. Leaders from both parties spent much of Thursday trying to work out final language for the budget resolution. Under the original plan, outlined by Senate Democratic and GOP aides, the House essentially would pass the final conference agreement on the budget and then leave town for Memorial Day. As it became clear that the Senate would still be working on the budget resolution when the House was scheduled to vote on a conference deal, Senate Democrats objected.
A Senate Democratic aide said he found it a "bizarre notion" that the House would vote on a conference report even before the Senate finished work on the original budget resolution. That plan would have deleted amendments the Senate had not yet considered, including a series of sense of Senate amendments. "It's ridiculous to exclude things that haven't even been voted on," the aide said.
Another Senate Democratic aide said Daschle was angry over the failure to pass the FY97 supplemental spending legislation and that he was less inclined to cooperate with the House's rush to adjourn.
"First things first," that aide said.
Kasich said he believes Daschle's anger over the supplemental was the motivating force behind the budget delay.
"It has nothing to do with the budget," Kasich said, adding that Senate Democrats are saying, "If you can't work out the supplemental, we're not going to give you" the final budget resolution.
One Senate Republican aide concurred that the delay "is not a problem."
However, one House GOP aide said passage of budget reconciliation bills would be delayed if the final resolution is not passed until after the Memorial Day break.
"It has to put it back somewhat, but who knows?" the aide said.
Meanwhile, the Senate continued to slog through amendments late Thursday and will continue this morning, with the hope that the Senate will approve its version of the budget resolution later today.
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