Senators are positioning themselves for the political battles of the year to come, not least of which is a presidential contest that will pit two members of their exclusive club against each other. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who has locked up the Republican nomination, and his Democratic counterparts, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), are expected at votes this week.

Reid criticized the Bush administration for the $400 million-plus budget deficit, and said Democrats would take action on the mortgage crisis, unemployment insurance, home-heating assistance and roads and bridges.

The big wild card for K Street is budget reconciliation, which gets the business community’s attention, lobbyists agreed. The procedural device allows the Senate to pass controversial bills to increase or decrease spending or taxes with a simple majority rather than the 60-vote majorities usually needed, thereby avoiding crippling filibusters.

This relatively smaller margin makes it easier to win support for an item a client wants — but markedly harder to stop something it does not want.

The House’s budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions to the Ways and Means Committee to cut $750 million in spending — much of which would go toward paying for Medicare, Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program spending. It also calls for the committee to prevent the costly Alternative Minimum Tax from hitting more middle-income taxpayers, which will cost $70 million.

The Senate version, however, does not include any reconciliation instructions, despite interest among some Senate Democrats to use reconciliation to smooth the path for priorities such as blocking a 10 percent cut in Medicare fees for physicians that would otherwise kick in July 1.

Reconciliation could be the end game, but that presumes both chambers will actually pass their respective budget resolutions. As a result, a conference package where the Senate and House would work out their differences is far from a foregone conclusion.

Senate Democrats will want to pass the budget not only to tout it as an accomplishment, but to ease the way for the appropriations process and the rest of the majority’s legislative agenda. “For the majority, the interest [is] making the trains run on time,” Gold said, and they may be willing to make deals with GOP senators to get that done.

On the other hand, the Republican business lobbyist said, Senate Republicans don’t have much of an incentive to play along with the Democratic majority. “We would probably be just as happy without a budget resolution,” the lobbyist said.

Manu Raju contributed to this report.