Short-Term Budget Negotiations Continue

Friday deadline looms

 Washington, DC

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

House and Senate negotiators continue their work on a short-term spending bill to fund the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. An agreement must be reached before midnight Friday to keep the government open.
President Obama gave a surprise briefing on budget negotiations yesterday, where he said "we are closer than we've ever been to getting an agreement" but "the last thing we need is a government shutdown." He said his team was not invited to a meeting between House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) yesterday. Obama said if a deal is not reached, he wants the two leaders to meet with them at the White House again.
His announcement came just hours after main negotiators, Speaker Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Reid, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Daniel Inouye (D-HI), met with the President at the White House. The meeting was described by Speaker Boehner as fruitful but unsuccessful at reaching a deal.
Republicans offered another proposal to fund the government for one additional week but fund the military for the remainder of the year. Their one-week proposal would cut an additional $12 billion dollars from the budget.  Obama has stated that he would not sign an additional interim bill unless it was necessary to get paperwork together on a broader agreement and pass it through both houses of Congress.
Congress has passed six short-term spending measures since the fiscal year began October 1st, including two short-term spending measures since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January.