Lawmaker warns of dwindling time for budget resolution

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said Thursday that Democratic leaders will have to decide soon whether or not to pursue an fiscal 2011 budget resolution in order to have a fighting chance to pass appropriations bills out of the House by the August recess.

"Obviously, we are approaching some kind of limit beyond which it would not be reasonable to do a budget resolution," Spratt said.

"The appropriators have got to start marking up their bills if we are going to get a number of the bills passed by the first of August," Spratt said. "They are going to need a green light pretty soon."

Spratt said he is "still hopeful that we can get a budget resolution," but the task appears to have a significant number of obstacles.

Spratt has been negotiating with members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who have been advocating an overall cut to nonsecurity spending of 2 percent each of the next three fiscal years and freeze spending levels for two years after.

The group is also seeking a provision in the resolution that would trigger reconciliation instructions if certain levels of deficit reduction are not met, Spratt said.

Both proposals have been opposed by leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose support will be needed to pass the resolution on the floor.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., a CBC leader, said, "I think everybody would tell you that [the proposed 2 percent cut] is not going to go over well with us."

Cleaver said that his concern is that the spending cut would hurt social programs on which his constituents depend.

Spratt said that the provision that would trigger reconciliation instructions would be difficult to make work because it primarily would affect Medicare, Medicaid and other popular healthcare entitlements by putting them in the fiscal "gun sights."

But negotiations are ongoing, and Cleaver hopes a solution can be found.

"I think you are going to see some of us working with the Blue Dogs to try to come up with some compromise," Cleaver said. "If Democrats can't negotiate with Democrats, I don't think it bodes well for making progress on any major legislation like immigration reform."

Meanwhile, an 18-member presidential commission that will make recommendations to Congress on how to bring down the deficit is setting up subpanels to explore different areas of the issue.

Bruce Reed, the commission's executive director, this week has been speaking to the members in order to empanel the subgroups, members of the commission said. Reed is the head of the Democratic Leadership Council.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said that he would likely be on two subpanels, one covering taxes and another on mandatory spending.

Camp said he looks forward to getting down to business.

"I think it's important to begin to move on this issue very quickly," Camp said.

He said the subpanels would probably meet each week that the full commission does not meet.

Spratt said he could be on three subpanels -- on budget process, discretionary spending and mandatory spending.

"I don't think that was set in concrete," Spratt said as Reed seeks to accommodate the preferences of the 18 members.