Senator to seek vote on budget ceiling after recess

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad. D-N.D., Tuesday said that even though he has the votes to pass legislation establishing a budget ceiling for fiscal 2003 and reaffirming various budget enforcement mechanisms, he would not pursue a vote on the bill this week because of "crunch" scheduling on the Senate floor.

Instead, he said he would seek to bring the bill up in September. "It has been decided, and we're confident we have the votes," said Conrad, who said the legislation would either be offered as an amendment to an fiscal 2003 appropriations bill or as stand-alone legislation. The third time could be the charm for Conrad, who has failed twice so far this year to get some sort of budget legislation through the Senate.

The last time the Senate tried to pass a substitute for an actual budget resolution was before the July Fourth recess. But intense lobbying from the White House, which objected to the ceiling of $768 billion because it was $9 billion above what President Bush wanted, kept the legislation one vote short of the 60-vote threshold needed for passing it.

But Conrad and Senate GOP sources said there is renewed movement on the issue among Senate leaders because lawmakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the Sept. 30 deadline, when all current budget enforcement procedures that keep appropriations as well as entitlement spending and tax cuts under control are set to expire. "There is a heightened recognition that we need to have something, and that we can't let this whole thing collapse completely," said a Senate Republican source.

While it is likely that the legislation would take the form of a Senate resolution as opposed to a statutory cap that would require a conference with the House and a signature by the president, Republicans are nevertheless still trying to get the White House to back the vehicle and free up senators to vote for it. Senate Budget ranking member Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has already met with OMB Director Mitch Daniels on the issue, sources said, and he left with the impression that the White House has an "open mind" about the legislation.

But agreeing to the bill-or letting Republicans vote for it without feeling the White House whip-could look to some as tantamount to backing down on Bush's demands not to exceed $759 billion in total spending for fiscal 2003. To help solve that problem, Domenici is proposing that the bill include a fiscal 2004 spending number that the White House could live with, sources said. And if the legislation takes the form of a resolution that never formally requires a presidential signature, the White House could still conceivably let the resolution move, but still stick to threats that it will veto appropriations bills that spend above the thresholds laid out in the president's budget request for fiscal 2003.