Budget

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is optimistic that Congress can complete a long-term surface transportation reauthorization before the August recess. 

LaHood said he has discussed the long-delayed measure with House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). 

"I'd like to have a transportation bill on the president's desk by the August recess," he said Friday during a conference call with reporters. He said the bill would be "significant and substantial" and that lawmakers in the House and Senate appear committed to complete the legislation. 

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Finance Committee, has announced that his panel would consider legislation on the airport trust fund on Tuesday. 

Baucus’s proposal for the trust fund calls for modernizing the air traffic control system with new technology to replace outdated radar systems, among other things. 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and other conservative Republicans are criticizing the spending cut announced by the House GOP on Thursday. 

Some, such as Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, criticize the $32 billion in cuts from current spending as insufficient.

The Treasury secretary told Sen. Pat Toomey that a plan to avoid default without raising the debt limit is "unworkable."

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) introduced a measure on Thursday that will rescind funds for so-called orphaned earmarks for an estimated savings of $500 million. 

The bill would require the return of unused funds of earmarks that have used 10 percent or less of appropriated funds after nine years, with the possibility of holding funds one more year for earmarks the agency head says will be funded within the following 12 months. 

“As Congress shifts its focus from earmarking to deficit reduction, rescinding funds for orphaned earmarks is an obvious step toward fiscal sanity," Coburn said in a statement.

"I urge my colleagues to pass this measure as soon as possible,” he said, noting that the Senate passed similar language last year by a margin of 87-11.

It’s perhaps not too surprising that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is not the biggest fan of President Obama’s push to expand high-speed rail. But that doesn’t mean he won’t get the hard sell from his Democratic colleague, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. 

On the same day House Republicans unveiled their plan to roll back spending, witnesses and lawmakers on the Senate side differed over whether now was the time to start more austere budgeting practices. 

At a Senate Budget Committee hearing, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics and others said belt-tightening should begin in earnest once the economy had gotten stronger, with Zandi estimating that could mean next year. But Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute advised against waiting much longer to tackle spending. 

The Federal Reserve chairman cautioned lawmakers against using a vote on raising the $14.3-trillion debt ceiling as a bargaining chip.

The federal government cut $15 billion in contract spending between fiscal years 2009 and 2010, putting the Obama administration on track to cut $40 billion over two years, officials announced Thursday. 

The contracting cuts are the first year-to-year since 1997 and reduced the amount of products and services supplied to the federal government from private firms to $535 billion from $550 billion, about 7 percent in cuts overall, according to Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients.

The push will continue on agencies in the president's fiscal 2012 budget request, which is set for release around Feb. 14, is expected to call for a 10 percent reduction in professional and technical service contracts that have grown rapidly in the past 10 years, officials said.