Senate Dubiously Reacts to House Budget Cut Proposals, Another Short Term CR May be in Offing

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the National Journal (subscription required) today that he expects a need for another short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) instead of a CR to cover the remaining seven months of FY2011. The Senator made his comments after the chairmen of the House Budget and Appropriations committees revealed the level of cuts they are proposing for the rest of the current fiscal year.

Senator Inouye pointed out that the Senate will have to carefully consider the House proposals, but will not be in session the week of February 21. The House is not in session this week, but will return next week and is expected to vote on a 7-month CR during the week of Feb. 14. With the Senate in recess the following week, however, it would not have time to consider and vote on it in time to avoid a government shutdown on March 4 when the current CR expires, Inouye explained. The top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran (R-MS), told the publication that he needs to study the House proposal more, too.

Other Democratic and Republican Senators quoted by the publication were skeptical about the House cuts being able to pass the Senate or said they needed to see the specifics before making any judgments. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking Republican on the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations subcommittee, was quoted, for example, as supporting “exploring” the budget for cuts, while adding that it was necessary to “look carefully at where we can cut right now.”