Budget chairman: GOP to set reconciliation strategy by mid-March

GOP lawmakers need to decide by mid-March how to they want to use the budget reconciliation process, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said Thursday. 

Enzi said his panel is scheduled to mark up a budget resolution in mid-March and plans to bring it to the Senate floor at the end of the month.

During a conference call with reporters, Enzi said Republicans don’t need to decide until March 16 or 17 whether to use reconciliation to repeal ObamaCare, to enact tax reform or to push through other major policy changes. 

“I’m not making any commitments on how it would be used at this point,” he said.

{mosads}Republicans could include reconciliation instructions in their coming budget blueprint. Any legislation that results from the process doesn’t require a supermajority in the Senate that’s normally required to break a filibuster. 

Enzi suggested Republicans could include reconciliation instructions that are less specific and more “generic” to give the GOP more flexibility, given the potential for changed dynamics on some issues. The Supreme Court, for example, is expected to rule on King v. Burwell, which could upend a key portion of the healthcare law, by the end of June.

Asked if the GOP could use the budget procedure for tax reform, Enzi said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wants to produce tax reform legislation that is “appreciated by both sides” of the aisle.  

The Senate Budget Committee intends to finish its budget by the April 15 deadline, said Enzi, who noted there could be “complications” because of a congressional recess earlier that month. That’s why the panel aims to finish it by the end of March.

To prevent automatic spending cuts through sequestration next year, Enzi said Congress must “meet the budget caps” and “have a good budget” that concentrates on cutting the deficit. 

Enzi declined to say when they’ll decide whether to replace Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf, whose term expired in early January.

“We’re working on that,” he said.