By Washington Partners MAY 18, 2012
Last week, Capitol Hill hosted a rarity—both the House and Senate were in session. That ends on Monday with the House recessing for a district work week while the Senate waits to follow suit until the week after Memorial Day. When they return in early June, it is likely that action on appropriations bills—including funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education—will be on their agendas. Action, however, does not mean completion, given virtually no one anticipates Congress finalizing the FY2013 budget until after the November elections.
Despite the anticipated delay, the Senate spent last week arguing about and voting on five separate budget proposals. First up was the House-passed plan from Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which failed on a party line vote. Then came a budget offered by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), purporting to be the Obama Administration’s proposal. Since that document lacked the policy detail necessary to qualify as an actual budget, all Democrats voted against the bill along with all of Senator Session’s Republican colleagues. (Anticipate campaign advertisements claiming even the Democrats in Congress oppose Obama’s spending plan.)
The remaining three proposals came from Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) who found the Ryan plan too generous. These all failed with a number of moderate Republicans joining the Democrats in their opposition.
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