Budget Deal Heads To The Senate For A Vote (5/21/97)
Gephardt Slams 'Budget Of Many Deficits' (5/20/97)
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WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 22) -- The Senate has beaten back the most serious impediments to the balanced-budget deal, but up to 13 hours of debate are scheduled today before senators will vote.
Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) wants a vote today so the Senate will have time to get the budget resolution fully out of its hair before its week-long Memorial Day recess begins Saturday.
If the budget plan passes, as expected, the Senate must next act on a conference report that reconciles any differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget.
Up to three dozen amendments will be proffered today, but most are expected to be disposed of quickly. One from Sen. Carol Moseley Braun would add $5 billion to repair and modernize schools.
Another essentially mirrors the House's failed effort earlier this week to add several billion dollars in transportation spending. The House amendment lost 214-216.
On Wednesday, senators voted 55-45 to kill what critics called a deal-busting amendment from Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have raised cigarette taxes 43 cents a pack.
The overall budget agreement would balance the budget by 2002 by trimming Medicare spending by $115 billion over five years while offering a net tax cut of $85 billion.