House budget "iffy" as Dems mull options

Although the fiscal 1999 budget resolution remains on the House schedule for later this week, prospects that it actually will come to the floor are "iffy," a House Republican leadership aide said today.

With the vote count uncertain, many members just returning from the Memorial Day recess and some attending Wednesday's funeral of former Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., plans for the budget remain up in the air.

"We won't be able to whip our members until they come back," the aide said. "We still have some undecided members and we need to reach out to them."

Before the recess, several Republican moderates continued to oppose the budget, and GOP leaders conceded some changes might be necessary to obtain the votes to pass it.

Democrats have not decided on their strategy when the budget moves to the floor. They likely will offer a substitute plan, an aide to House Budget ranking member John Spratt, D-S.C., said. He added, however, that it is not clear whether that alternative will be offered by several Democratic groups, including members of The Coalition, the group of moderate to conservative Democrats also known as the "Blue Dogs."

The aide said, "All of the lines of communication are open," and added that there is even some discussion of offering the Senate budget resolution as an alternative.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues this week, Spratt said: "The House Republican budget resolution is an unrealistic spending plan that has little chance of becoming law. It deviates from last year's budget agreement and effectively isolates House Republicans from Senate Republicans."

An aide to a member of The Coalition said the group is still looking at its options. However, the Concord Coalition this week sent a letter to The Coalition and moderate Republican members of the Tuesday Group asking them to develop an alternative to the House Republican plan, arguing it deviates too much from the balanced budget agreement.

"We look to the Tuesday Group and The Coalition because both groups have well-deserved reputations for fiscal responsibility and bipartisan cooperation," Robert Bixby, policy director for the Concord Coalition, said in the letter.

The Concord Coalition said it is concerned GOP spending cuts would fall too heavily on non-defense and non-transportation programs, that spending cuts are backloaded and that the plan disregards budget enforcement rules by allowing discretionary spending cuts to pay for tax cuts.