Senate leader postpones vote on budget resolution

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Thursday postponed consideration of the fiscal 2005 budget resolution until after the Memorial Day recess, avoiding almost certain defeat on the same day President Bush visited Capitol Hill to rally the GOP Conference behind his agenda.

"It is premature to bring it to a vote tonight. I've been working hard with my colleagues -- talking to Republicans and Democrats, and I don't want to shut the door by forcing people to vote" on the resolution, Frist said. "I would expect we would bring it to a vote at some point. If I didn't have some options open, I might bring it to a vote and let the chips fall where they may."

Frist's move headed off the possibility of a second embarrassing White House defeat, after the House defied a veto threat Thursday and voted to retain a two-year delay of the next round of military base closings as part of the defense authorization measure.

Frist and Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., have been unable to win support from at least two holdout Republicans they need to pass the budget blueprint.

Four GOP moderates -- John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- all have said they oppose the budget resolution because it exempts the $27.5 billion cost of extending three tax cuts that expire this year.

Extending the three tax cuts -- the $1,000-per-child tax credit, standard deduction for married couples and expanded 10 percent tax bracket -- are top legislative priorities for congressional Republican leaders and the White House. The budget resolution would provide important procedural protections to ease their passage.

Aides in both chambers said House GOP leaders inflamed the situation and firmed up Senate opposition by making comments critical of the four GOP holdouts.

"We need to pull together as a party and not leave a poor taste in anyone's mouth," a Senate GOP aide said, adding that it was better to bring the budget to the floor "after tempers cooled."

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters Wednesday that "three or four" Senate Republicans were blocking "tax relief for the American people," while House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., criticized McCain by name when asked about the latter's recent critical comments on passing tax cuts during wartime.

A Senate Democratic aide said the chamber's failure to approve the budget resolution "shows that the Tom DeLay tactics of bullying, bribery and bombast just don't work in the Senate."

Meanwhile, the House planned to forge ahead with the fiscal 2005 appropriations process after the Memorial Day recess, as the House "deemed" the budget resolution's discretionary spending limit as part of the rule for floor debate Wednesday. The House approved the budget plan on a 216-213 vote later that night.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., met Thursday with Hastert and said he would hold at least three subcommittee markups the week after the recess.

Young said the Interior spending bill would be considered that week, and the Homeland Security, Military Construction, Legislative Branch and Defense bills also were possibilities.

He said he had planned to move the Defense bill first. But with Bush's request for an additional $25 billion in fiscal 2005 funds for Iraq and Afghanistan, the panel might take more time to consider it.

"We're behind schedule," Young said. "We have to do something every day. We can't afford to lose a day without some appropriations action."

An aide added if House GOP leaders brought a budget enforcement bill to the floor as promised, the appropriations process probably would stop temporarily, as Young and other panel leaders focused on that measure. House conservatives want to impose tough restrictions on appropriators through the enforcement legislation.

It could be slightly trickier for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who said Thursday he still held out hope for a budget resolution. He said options were available for starting the process in that chamber in the event the budget resolution is not adopted. "It makes it harder, but there are ways to do it," he said.