–Senate Vote Concludes Long Battle On FY’11 Budget; Other Fights Loom
–Senate Approves Final FY’11 Bill On 81-to-19 Vote
–House Continues To Debate FY’12 Budget; Votes To Come Friday

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The Senate voted Thursday to approve the final
2011 fiscal year spending bill, sending it to President Obama for his
signature.

The Senate approved the bill on a 81-to-19 vote. Earlier in the
evening, the House passed the same bill on a 260-to-167 vote.

Passage of the bill, which was negotiated by the White House and
congressional leaders, ends the first major fiscal battle of the 112th
Congress.

Congress and President Obama have already begun to prepare for
larger and more consequential battles over the FY’12 budget and debt
ceiling legislation.

The final FY’11 spending bill cuts spending by $78 billion below
what President Obama first proposed and $38 billion below current
spending levels.

The 2011 fiscal year began on Oct. 1 and the government has run on
seven short-term funding bills.

Congress’s most recent temporary spending bill for the 2011 fiscal
year will keep the federal government funded until Friday.

The House has already begun to debate competing FY’12 budget
outlines.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is presenting the
House GOP’s plan.

Ryan’s budget calls for about $4 trillion in ten year savings from
Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlement programs and discretionary
programs. It also calls for the extension of all the Bush era tax cuts.

Ryan’s plan comes in the form of an FY’12 budget resolution which
is a non-binding congressional blueprint which makes ten year spending
and revenue estimates as well as deficit projections.

House Democrats are offering an alternative FY’12 budget outline as
are a group of conservative Republicans and a group of liberal
Democrats.

The House will vote on the various budget plans Friday.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat, is
expected to present his FY’12 blueprint in late April or early May.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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