The chairmen of the House Budget and Armed Services panels are being tight-lipped about GOP leadership’s plans to resolve a feud between fiscal conservatives and defense hawks that is threatening to scuttle the chamber’s $3.8 trillion budget blueprint.
“We’re still working on it and we’ll let you know as soon as we know,” Budget Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) told reporters early Thursday following a closed-door meeting in the office of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The GOP-lead panel failed late Wednesday to approve its budget plan after deficit hawks revolted over an amendment by Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) that would have increased war funding to around $96 billion, and required no offsets for that spending.
The move was designed to win over members of the Armed Services panel and other members who had demanded that defense spending at least match the level requested by President Obama.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was brought in, but failed to convince panel members to agree to the budget.
The panel is set meeting again at 10:30 Thursday morning to finish its markup.
Price brushed off a suggestion that he or Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) had somehow failed to accurately gauge support for Rokita’s amendment.
“We’re in the middle of this process, so I’ll let you know when we decide what we’re going to do,” he said.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said he was “hopeful the Budget Committee is going to report a budget out and then we’ll move towards how it’s handled on the floor.”
“I think at the end of the day, the national security folks are going to support this budget,” he added. “How it’s all going to happen I’m going to leave that to Chairman Price because it’s his product.”
Asked if any concessions could be made to get fiscal conservative members on board, Thornberry replied: “I think everybody’s a deficit hawk and a defense hawk.”