Congress Ready to Begin Budget Work (2/15/2008)

President Bush began the fiscal year 2009 (FY09) budget cycle last week when he released his budget request. The wheels are beginning to turn in Congress, and the House and Senate Budget Committee plan to begin work shortly after they return from the week-long President’s Day recess. Despite conceding a lot of ground to the President’s request last year, the Democratic majority in Congress is claiming that it will begin the same fight it lost last year.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Ken Conrad (D-ND) is promising to turn a budget resolution (BR) out of committee that closely resembles last year’s resolution. Sen. Conrad plans to mark up the BR on March 5th and 6th. Although the House has not scheduled a mark up, House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) intends to begin work around that same time. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to lambast the President’s budget request, claiming it underfunds too many important domestic priorities.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is criticizing cuts to the children’s health insurance program and various higher education grants, including elimination of the Perkins loan program, which provides money for low-income students to attend college. She is estimating that the President’s budget would cut about $900 million from higher education programs. Rep. Spratt also joined in by referring to Bush’s budget cuts as “draconian,” especially regarding cuts to entitlement programs. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson argued that entitlement reform would help raise revenue by nearly $2 trillion a year.

Once both chambers have passed their own BRs, the bills will go to conference and they will put together a joint BR. Once that is approved by both the House and the Senate, it will set caps on discretionary spending, meant to guide Congressional appropriators, who begin work shortly after a joint BR is passed. Since the BR is only used for Congressional purposes, it does not require the President’s signature. Spratt and Conrad hope to have the BR ready in early April, allowing appropriators to begin work shortly after the Easter recess.

Resources:
Vicki Needham, “Conrad: Fiscal 2009 Budget Will Resemble 2008,” Congress Now, February 12, 2008.
Jay Heflin, “Spratt Questions Wisdom of Bush Budget's Parameters,” Congress Now, February 13, 2008.
Author: SAS