Sen. Conrad blames party leaders, White House for budget problems

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) could not conceal his frustration with the Obama administration and his own party leaders on Thursday as he urged his colleagues to ditch the current broken budget process and get more serious about cutting the national debt.

Conrad, who is retiring, has made reining in the federal deficit a personal mission, but his work as part of the bipartisan Gang of Six budget negotiators and the president’s deficit commission was largely sidelined this year by Democratic leaders.

Adding insult to injury, the Senate has failed to pass a budget resolution for nearly 900 days, and Conrad has taken public punches for that fact.

On Thursday, Conrad laid part of the blame on party leaders, saying budget chairmen need more ammunition to ensure floor votes on a budget resolution. 

“You have got to give the budget chairmen more tools,” Conrad said. He said one tool could be forbidding any bills from coming to the floor that are not emergencies until a budget resolution in enacted.

Conrad offered his remarks during a special meeting of his committee on Thursday. The meeting was to formulate recommendations to the deficit supercommittee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in cuts to annual deficits over the next decade. 

Thursday's meeting focused on possible reforms to the budget process. 

Conrad said more needs to be done to involve the White House in the budget process. He said the White House had not been active in efforts to move a budget resolution this year, and that it “certainly” became clear this year that if the White House is not at the table, budget efforts cannot be completed.

One way of getting the White House more involved would be to have the president sign a budget resolution approved by Congress. Resolutions are not sent to the president now even when they are approved by both chambers. The president becomes involved only at the end of the process, when he must sign appropriations bills developed in line with the budget resolution.

Conrad has asked the White House if it would support a proposal by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to have the president sign the budget resolution, but said he has cannot get an answer.

Conrad said his committee was “big footed” by talks between party leaders and the Obama administration on a grand deficit bargain, but that even in typical years Congress is failing to do its legally mandated job to produce an annual budget.

Conrad’s solution is to switch to a biennial budget and limit the amount of floor time that a budget resolution consumes. He said majority leaders are loath to allow budget resolutions to be pummeled for weeks on the floor with extraneous amendments.

The Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing next week on the Thune proposal, and on recommending penalties be put in place if a budget is not passed.

Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) signaled his support for these reforms at Thursday’s meeting.