Inouye expects short-term CR

Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said another short-term continuing resolution is likely before the current stopgap measure expires March 4. 

Responding to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's announcement Tuesday that Republicans will hold a mid-February vote on the funding measure, Inouye acknowledged that a tough battle lies ahead with a short period of time to resolve what's expected to be two vastly different bills. 

While Inouye said he expects a short-term resolution but he didn't want to take a guess at the length. A short-term extension could be passed to avoid a government shutdown if the House and Senate can't reach an agreement on a bill. 

The House is expected to hold a vote the week of Feb. 14, around the same time that President Obama is set to release his fiscal year 2012 budget plan. 

Based on the Congressional schedule, the House and Senate are both out of session the following week for President's Day recess and will have about one week to resolve the differences between the bills. The House is scheduled to be out of session March 4. 

House Republicans are planning to propose upwards of $60 billion in cuts to the federal budget with the intention of reducing all spending to 2008 levels.

Republican leaders said they will have an open amendment process for the funding bill, which will allow conservatives to push for as much as $100 billion in cuts, a move backed by the Republican Study Committee, and for Democrats to express their concerns about the as-of-yet-unannounced cuts.

"The Speaker has continued to say we’re going to have an open process in this House, and the House will work its will,” Cantor said. “Our intention is to allow every member on both sides of the political aisle to come forward and offer his or her prescriptions for how we cut spending and reduce the size of government.”

Republican leaders also pledged an open amendment process for the funding bill, which will allow conservatives to push for deeper cuts and for liberals to forcefully register their opposition.

The vote will allow Republican leaders to move ahead on their efforts to reduce spending for the current fiscal year, before the full budget process begins in earnest. The majority leader has said the continuing resolution is one of “three bites at the apple” Republicans will have to demand spending cuts. The other two are a vote to raise the debt ceiling for the fiscal 2012 budget.

On Monday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters to expect more and deeper cuts in the president's budget this year. 

Russell Berman contributed to this story.