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Republican leadership soon to negotiate 2-yr budget deal with Obama

Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday Republican leadership in Congress would soon start negotiating with U.S. President Barack Obama on a two-year budget deal for 2016 and 2017 fiscal years.

"We'd like to settle the top line (of spending level) for both years so that next year we can have a regular appropriations process," said McConnell at a press conference.

"The president and (House) Speaker (John) Boehner and I spoke about getting started in the discussions last week and I would expect them to start very soon," he added.

As the nation had already entered the 2016 presidential election cycle, Republican leaders in recent weeks showed increasing eagerness to strike a two-year budget deal to shun another standoff or even a government shutdown over budget next year in the middle of an election.

Without moves to push for a stopgap budget measure from Capitol Hill by Sept. 30, the federal government will again be shut down on Oct. 1 when federal funding dries up.

However, with the sudden resignation of House Speak John Boeher on Friday, the threat from hard-line Republicans to ouster him if he negotiates with Democrats also lost its coercive power.

It was now noted by many that a short-term budget bill, which would fund the federal government till Dec. 11, would soon been reached to buy more time for negotiations of a long-term budget bill.

Republicans and Democrats reached a two-year budget bill in 2013 with Senate and House Budget Committee chairs taking the lead in negotiations.

However, Republican leadership in Congress made clear early this year that this time round, negotiations must be carried out between Republican congressional leadership and the White House, since Republicans now control both chambers of Congress.

The prospect for a successful deal remains dim, with Democrats demanding that budget caps be lifted overall while Republicans insisting an increase only for the defense programs.

Also, it remains unclear how internal chasm within the Republican Party would affect the final passage of such a deal. Endit