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Conrad, Gregg vow to continue fight on debt-reduction panel
The chief sponsors of a proposed debt-reduction commission on Tuesday assured they would continue working to implement their plan, even though the commission fell a few votes short of the 60 it needed to pass earlier in the day.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told reporters Tuesday afternoon he still hopes "we will find a way to get a statutory commission," as his amendment prescribed. He added he and the panel's co-sponsor, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), would also continue "to search for alternatives that are credible."
"I was very, very encouraged that we got 53 votes," he repeated.
The Conrad-Gregg proposal has been the subject of intense debate since last year, when the two lawmakers tried to attach it to a short-term debt ceiling increase.
In effect, their plan would create a panel that would assemble a package of tax increases and spending cuts designed to address the country's growing debt, which Congress would have to approve or disapprove in a mandatory vote without amendments.
The two lawmakers revived their effort at the beginning of this year, positioning it again as part of the chamber's debt-increase bill. But it failed by only seven votes on Tuesday, despite bipartisan support.
Both Conrad and Gregg seemed to suspect weeks ago their proposal might fail, and so too did the White House, which announced last week it supported the idea. The president even floated the possibility of authoring an executive order commissioning the panel.
But the two sponsors said that method would be insufficient, as that commission would not have the power to require Congress to take action.
"I don't see how that's effective because there's no assurance at all of a vote on the recommendations of the commission," Conrad said Tuesday. Gregg echoed that concern to reporters earlier in the day, stressing the executive-mandated committee would have no statutory authority.
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