Senate could vote soon on budget resolution
Vote could come as early as Wednesday, says Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
The Senate could act on the compromise fiscal 2009 budget resolution as soon as Wednesday, possibly before the House, according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
"We hope to do it Wednesday or Thursday... perhaps before the House," Conrad said.
He pointed out that Senate Democratic leaders would need consent from Republicans in order to take up the resolution before the House.
The House is expected to take up the measure Thursday, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
Conrad added that "there are timing issues for [senators] on both sides [of the aisle] who would like to do it before the House."
He said that he has not been given assurances that Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. and Barack Obama, D-Ill., who are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, would be around to vote.
Obama and Clinton "might be back, but you can't count on them being here," said Conrad, adding that "they have a lot of other things to do."
The participation of Clinton and Obama might be critical given the Democrats' slim margin in the Senate. In March, the Senate approved its version of the resolution, 51-44.
Conrad indicated that while he expected it to be a close vote, he said that he would not bring the bill up if he did not believe it would be approved.
"I wouldn't bring it to a vote if I didn't have a fair degree of confidence that we would carry the vote," Conrad said. "But could I be surprised? Yeah. Do I know with absolute certainty who is going to be here? No, I don't. That has been one of the challenges throughout this. But I am reasonably confident" that the resolution will pass.
He said special accommodations for the vote would be given to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who underwent surgery Monday to treat a brain tumor.
"Another senator will pair with him," said Conrad, who declined to say who that would be. "Sen. Kennedy isn't here to vote, so under the Senate pairing rule, another senator would withhold his vote. He would be on the opposite side [of the legislation.] It is really a very respectful thing to do so that Sen. Kennedy's absence will not affect the outcome."
Under the resolution, approved by a House-Senate conference committee last month, discretionary spending in FY09 would be capped at $1.013 trillion, $21 billion over the $991.6 billion recommended by President Bush.
If approved, it would be the first time a budget will have passed in an election year since 2000. The budget, which includes a five-year horizon, would achieve a surplus of $22 billion in FY12 and $10 billion in FY13.
The proposal also includes a plan to provide $340 billion in tax cuts, including permanent extension of the 10 percent income tax bracket, an increased child tax credit, elimination of the marriage penalty and fixing the estate tax at 2009 levels.
Most Republicans oppose the resolution over what they contend is a record tax increase because it assumes some of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 would expire.
They are critical of the fact that the budget's $1.013 trillion discretionary figure would be the first time it has surpassed $1 trillion.