Conrad at peace with Reid keeping budget off floor

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he is at peace with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) announcement last week that there is no need to bring a 2013 Senate budget resolution to the floor.

The move by Reid runs directly counter to Conrad’s plan to try to mark up a 2013 budget resolution in his committee and has given Republicans the opportunity to lambast Democrats for being fiscally irresponsible.

“I understand Sen. Reid saying, 'Look, we’ve got a budget, why would we spend time taking another budget to the floor when there is so little prospect of succeeding, given the divide in this body and between this body and the House?' ” Conrad said at a committee hearing Thursday.

“I understand we have very few days available for floor activity on these issues, and so what are the prospects of getting another budget passed that really succeeds in taking on long-term issues?” he said.

Conrad said that Reid is correct to argue that the August debt-ceiling deal set up spending levels for 2013, but he said a long-term debt plan is needed.

“To me, it is really worth the effort,” he said.

Conrad told ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that if the committee can come together on a bipartisan plan, it might be able to convince party leaders to bring a budget to the floor.

“If we want to convince leadership that it is worth floor time, we have to get agreement among ourselves,” he said.

In his response, Sessions said he wants to work with Conrad but also said things will be different if Republicans take the Senate in the fall elections.

“If I have the opportunity, and I think the Republican leadership has an opportunity next year, we are going to write a budget. It’s going to be a budget that the House and the Senate agree to; it’s going to change the debt course of this country; and it is not going to continue this cloud over our future,” he said.

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