–As Deficit Reduction Committee Struggles, Mostly Symbolic Vote Looms
–Rump Group of Deficit Panel Met Thursday Night; No Deal In Sight
–Close House Vote Expected Around 1;30 PM On Balanced Budget Amendment

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – With Congress’s deficit reduction panel still
stalemated, the House will vote Friday afternoon on a balanced budget
constitutional amendment.

The House vote is expected between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. and is
likely to be close.

The House will vote on a version of a balanced budget amendment
that requires federal outlays to equal receipts. Waiving this balanced
budget requirement would require a three-fifths vote of each chamber. It
would also require three-fifth votes by Congress to increase the debt
ceiling.

For the balanced budget amendment to pass the House, it must secure
a two-thirds majority, or 290 votes.

House Republican leaders, presumably with an eye on that goal,
decided not to go forward with a much more stringent version of the
amendment that would have mandated that spending never exceed 18% of
GDP.

However, it remains unclear if the amendment will clear the House.
Most Democrats, even those who have supported balanced budget amendments
in previous years, have said they will vote against the amendment this
year because they don’t trust Republicans to enact fair or smart
policies to reach a balanced budget.

The Senate is also expected to vote on a balanced budget amendment
this year, but the amendment’s fate in the upper chamber is even more
uncertain than it is in the House.

Even if the amendment were to pass through the House and Senate in
identical form, it would need to be ratified by three-quarters of the
states.

As the House debate continues on the balanced budget amendment, all
eyes in the Capitol remain focused on Congress’s deficit reduction
panel.

The panel has been blocked all week and no signs of a breakthrough
are on the horizon.

A bipartisan group of six members of the panel met Thursday evening
but there are no indications that an agreement is coming.

Those meeting Thursday night were Republicans senators Jon Kyl, Pat
Toomey and Rob Portman, Democratic senators John Kerry and Max Baucus,
and Democratic congressman Chris Van Hollen.

Congress’s Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is charged
to submit a report to Congress by Wednesday that reduces the deficit
by between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion for the 2012 and 2021 period.

The final package, if one is agreed to by the majority of the
panel’s 12 members, must be voted on without amendment by the House and
Senate by Dec. 23, 2011.

If the panel fails to agree on a spending cut package or Congress
rejects its plan, a budget enforcement trigger would secure $1.2
trillion in budget savings through across-the-board cuts.

The cuts would be equally divided between defense and non-defense
programs but would exempt Social Security, Medicaid and low-income
programs.

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

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