After days of hand-wringing, arm-twisting and nose-counting, the House Friday afternoon passed its version of a fiscal 1999 budget resolution by 216-204.
The budget, which would slash federal spending by another $100 billion over the next five years, represents a "historic effort to keep us on the offensive," House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told reporters after the vote.
Although Chief Deputy Majority Whip Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., joked the vote was "never in question," another key Republican said that until an hour before the vote, GOP leaders were uncertain it would pass.
Republicans publicly gained some votes Friday afternoon, when House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, and Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., discussed the budget on the House floor and Kasich assured Davis that the plan would not cut federal employee and retiree benefits. Davis said he would not have supported the budget without that assurance.
An initial version of the House budget resolution contained a proposal to change the current formula (written into law just six months ago) for determining the government's share of premiums under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to a flat annual dollar amount. Under this proposal, the government's share would be adjusted annually based on increases in inflation as opposed to increases in medical costs, which are rising much faster. This would have resulted in as much as $3 billion of health costs being transferred from the government to employees and retirees over the next five years.
Democrats cited the Davis-Kasich conversation and others as evidence that Republicans were quickly cutting deals to get the votes to pass the spending plan. House GOP defense advocates were among the holdouts, and Hastert said GOP leaders assured them that they were committed to helping them.
Kasich called the spending blueprint the "nine lives budget," adding that, "Every time people say it's dead, it comes back to life again."
While moderate Republicans had said there could be as many as 40 Republicans who would oppose the budget, only nine Republicans voted against it. Three Democrats voted for it.
Throughout the morning, House Republican leaders continued to scramble in their search for votes to pass the budget resolution.
"We think we can get there," Republican Conference Chairman John Boehner of Ohio said following an early-morning House GOP leadership meeting. He conceded that Republican leaders were telling moderate Republican critics that if they do not like the budget, it will change in conference with the Senate.
"What we tried to do is see how far we could push the process," Boehner told reporters.
The most vocal moderate Republican opponent, Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware, said GOP leaders were working hard on lobbying members. "They're good at this," he said, adding that the series of votes Friday morning afforded them the opportunity to press members.
NEXT STORY: Alleged USDA race remark probed