Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Sen. Mike Enzi announced Monday the panel is pushing back its timeline on marking up the fiscal year 2017 budget, but will continue working on configuring a proposal.
The Wyoming Republican said the Appropriations Committee has the ability to markup individual bills due to language in the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2015 — a move supported by Senate Majority Leader [crscore]Mitch McConnell[/crscore].
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart told The Daily Caller News Foundation the Kentucky Republican has “tasked the committee with moving all the bills separately so that the Senate can move through regular order.”
Enzi can file his budget numbers between April 15 and May 15.
“The Senate Budget Committee will continue to discuss the budget as well as improvements to the budget process that would increase fiscal honesty, stability in government operations and the ability to help govern our nation,” Enzi said in a statement. “The Senate already has top-line numbers and budget enforcement features available this year so that a regular order appropriations process can move forward while we continue to discuss broader budget challenges.”
According to the committee, a budget resolution passed by the House could be placed directly on the upper chamber’s calendar after April 1. The lower chamber pushed back the introduction of its 2017 fiscal year budget until March.
Conservatives have been hesitant to agree to a deal due to the increases in spending in the bill passed last October, calling for cuts in the wake of the national debt — which has passed the $19 trillion mark.
House Speaker [crscore]Paul Ryan[/crscore] has called on members of his party to stick to agreed upon parameters negotiated by former Speaker [crscore]John Boehner[/crscore] to avoid another omnibus spending bill.
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