Saturday, April 25, 2009 - Page updated at 12:15 AM
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Dems reach deal to use shortcut on budget vote
By Lori Montgomery and Amit R. Paley
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON ? Congressional Democrats reached a tentative agreement to authorize
use of a legislative shortcut to push President Obama's sweeping health and
education initiatives through the Senate without Republican votes.
Republicans quickly blasted the deal on Obama's $3.5 trillion budget request,
scheduled to be considered Monday by a House-Senate conference committee. But
the victory appeared to energize the president, who within hours of the
agreement issued a challenge to the "army of lobbyists" massing to defeat his
plan to cut private banks out of the profitable student-loan business and use
the savings to expand college aid.
"They are gearing up for battle. So am I," Obama said Friday at a White House
event to tout his education plan.
The procedural shortcut, or reconciliation, would make it far easier to pass
Obama's student-loan plan ? which has drawn opposition from lawmakers in both
parties ? and his proposal to expand health coverage for the uninsured.
Reconciliation bills are tax or spending measures that cannot be blocked by
filibuster, meaning the Senate needs only 51 votes to pass them instead of the
usual 60. Democrats now hold 58 Senate seats.
Republicans and some influential Democrats have opposed using reconciliation,
especially for health care, saying it flies in the face of Obama's pledge of
bipartisanship and would poison efforts to produce a health-care plan that
could win broad support.
"It would make it absolutely clear they intend to carry out their plans on a
purely partisan basis," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has been
among the most vocal opponents of reconciliation.
Democrats have agreed that reconciliation would "only be used as a last
resort," Conrad said. The resolution would instruct congressional committees
with authority over education and health care to produce a reconciliation bill
by Oct. 15.
Copyright ? 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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