Chairmen don't expect fiscal 2011 budget resolution until after recess

With the spring recess a little over a week away and Democrats focused on passing healthcare reform, the leaders of the House and Senate Budget committees don't expect to take up their respective fiscal 2011 budget resolutions until after the break.

"We will do it after Easter," House Budget Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., said Thursday.

While the panel has been mostly occupied by efforts to pass healthcare reform, Spratt said, the committee has met with leaders of several Democratic factions on the fiscal 2011 spending blueprint, including the Blue Dogs, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Spratt said his budget would use a five-year window, like the fiscal 2010 resolution, but "generally we would like to do a bit better than the president's budget on deficit reduction."

President Obama's budget cut the deficit from $1.556 trillion in fiscal 2010, or 10.6 percent of the gross domestic product, to $706 billion in fiscal 2014, or 3.9 percent of GDP.

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., this week also said healthcare reform will delay work on the fiscal 2011 budget resolution.

The Senate is expected to take up a reconciliation bill after House action on the measure that would make changes to a Senate healthcare package the House is expected to pass with the reconciliation measure.

"With health care and reconciliation, there's no time to do" the resolution, Conrad said.

He added that he has been working with the Senate parliamentarian to try to guard against attempts by Republicans to change the package under the Byrd Rule, which states that only items with a direct budgetary impact can be included in the reconciliation measure.

"We are going through a laborious process ... to identify the things that could be stricken and taken them out," Conrad said.

On Thursday, Conrad declined to discuss any details of the resolution, but at a hearing after the Feb. 1 release on the president's budget, he hinted he also would like to do better on deficit reduction than the White House budget.

"I don't see the focus on bringing down the long-term debt, getting below -- as I see the numbers -- 5 percent of GDP over the next 10 years." Conrad said. "That is too high."

White House officials have said that the budget relies on a presidential deficit reduction commission that would make recommendations to Congress to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by fiscal 2015. The commission would present its proposals to Congress by Dec. 1, and Democratic congressional leaders have pledged to take up the commission's recommendations.