Dems wrestle with budget decision

House Democrats are wrestling over whether to move forward with a budget ahead of a self-imposed midnight deadline.

Producing a budget would put Democratic divisions on display, and could allow Republicans to set up difficult votes that might further divide the majority.

But not doing a budget also has its downside. Democrats have a majority for the first time in eight years, and the failure would be seen as an abdication of responsibility.

{mosads}House Budget Committee Republicans circulated a memo Monday reminding the press that “drafting a budget is the chief responsibility of the Budget Committee” as well as articles speculating that the majority would forgo a resolution.

Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told The Hill last week that Democrats were inching toward a deal, but differences remained over spending levels. 

Yarmuth was struggling to unify the party’s progressive wing, which wants to boost domestic spending at the expense of defense, with more conservative Democrats focused on deficit reduction and defense hawks who want to keep increases for defense spending.

Yarmuth previously has said that the proposed budget resolution would have to be released on Monday in order to secure a committee vote ahead of the upcoming April recess, though Democrats could always circumvent that deadline.

Although budget resolutions do not carry the force of law and are largely political documents, House Republicans were jubilant at the prospect that Democrats would fail to advance one.

Democrats played down the issue, saying that they are showing unity where it counts in House bills that have already passed the chamber.

“I totally disagree with that,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in response to a question about whether the failure to reach a budget deal would be a sign of disunity.

“Our top priorities have been clear from the beginning: gun reform, we passed it, H.R. 1, we passed it, the Equality Act, we’re going to pass that, the Dream Act and the Promise Act, we’re going to pass those,” said Jayapal, a member of the Budget panel.

Regardless of whether the panel advances a budget, Democrats are expected to set down markers in the fight over raising the legal spending caps, which will govern this year’s appropriations process. 

The White House and the GOP-controlled Senate have both proposed sticking to the deep cuts set out in the 2011 Budget Control Act, which would reduce total spending by $125 billion.

President Trump, however, proposed funneling roughly $100 billion more into a special fund for defense so that the Pentagon would get more money even as nondefense spending is reduced.

Republican appropriators in the Senate have shown little appetite for the administration’s approach, setting up a showdown with the White House and House Democrats over spending.

Without guidance on spending levels, appropriators would struggle to get spending bills completed on time, which could lead to a stopgap funding deal or even a shutdown when the new fiscal year begins in October.