Senate to hold test votes on competing spending plans

Republicans and Democrats have agreed to hold test votes in the Senate next week on the House-passed spending bill and a White House proposal to cut $6.5 billion this year, aides confirmed Friday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is drawing up a six-and-a-half month continuing resolution, or CR, based on the White House proposal, unveiled Thursday as Vice President Joe Biden opened budget talks with Republicans.

{mosads}The cuts in that plan are to come from areas cut in the House seven-month CR that have been identified by the White House as acceptable.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will hold votes on H.R. 1, the House bill that cuts $61 billion this year, and the alternative CR. Both bills are expected to fail to reach the 60-vote mark needed for passage.

The test votes are designed to show that neither party has enough support to get its plan through the Senate, meaning both sides will have to cede ground on their spending positions.

Democrats say they have met Republicans halfway with the $6.5 billion in additional cuts. By their math, Republicans are cutting $102.3 billion in their bill compared to President Obama’s 2011 budget request, which was never enacted.

Factoring in the $4 billion in cuts Obama signed into law Wednesday, spending is currently at $44.8 billion less than the president’s 2011 request.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the Democrats claims “nonsense” in a floor speech Friday morning.

After Thursday afternoon’s meeting in the Capitol, Biden issued only a brief statement: “We had a good meeting, and the conversation will continue.”

The stopgap spending bill expires March 18.