House and Senate GOP leadership aides have drawn up an ambitious schedule for the fiscal 2001 budget cycle, despite a fundamental difference between the chambers' budget panels on whether to adjust next year's statutory spending cap.
A Senate leadership source said while the target dates are still tentative, the goal is to have "an aggressively collaborative process [between the House and Senate] to accelerate the schedule" to get members out by Oct. 6 so they have time to campaign.
At Wednesday's bicameral leadership staff meeting, GOP aides agreed to finish the fiscal 2001 congressional budget resolution by March 10, the last day before the Senate recesses for 10 days and more than a month before the April 15 statutory deadline for finalizing the annual budget blueprint.
But first they must determine whether the fiscal 2001 budget resolution will maintain the discretionary spending cap as set in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, which the Congressional Budget Authority has estimated at $542 billion in budget authority. That means that to keep total discretionary spending next year to the cap level, Congress would have to reduce spending by $42 billion, or 3.2 percent.
The Senate Budget Committee, in this week's "Budget Bulletin," suggested that if President Clinton's fiscal 2001 budget submission does not propose raising the caps, then Congress ought to do so in its budget resolution. But sources with the House Budget Committee say Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, is against that idea.
GOP leadership aides also intend to have all 13 annual appropriations bills passed by both houses and in conference by July 28, the final day of legislative business before the August recess, and the Republican National Convention, which runs from July 31 through Aug. 4. This past year, the House completed all but the VA-HUD and Labor-HHS spending bills before the August recess, while the Senate was unable to finish six appropriations bills before the summer break, and never passed a stand-alone Labor-HHS bill.
A source with the House Appropriations Committee said any schedule decisions before the president submits his budget in early February are moot, asking, "How can you have a serious discussion about appropriations bills until you know how much money you have?" On the Senate side, a leadership aide stressed that leaders intend to work "in tandem with appropriators" and budget writers.
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