–President, Senate Majority Leader, House Speaker Reach Accord
–House Speaker Boehner: Hill Will Pass FY2013 Stop-Gap In September
–Senate Majority Leader Reid: Accord Shows Hill Can Work Together
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House
Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday they have reached an agreement with
President Barack Obama on a six-month stop-gap spending bill for 2013
fiscal year.
Reid made the announcement to reporters after a Senate Democratic
luncheon and Boehner released a statement moments later.
Reid and Boehner said lawmakers will write up the agreement in
August so Congress can pass the bill when it returns from the
congressional recession in September.
The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. So far Congress has passed none
of the 12 spending bills to fund the government for FY2013.
Boehner said the stop-gap will reflect the debt ceiling accord of
last August which allowed for $1.047 trillion for the discretionary
programs in FY2013.
Reid said the agreement shows that lawmakers from the two parties
can work together.
On another issue, Reid said the parties are divided on the coming
across-the-board spending cuts in FY2013, with Democrats open to
revising the sequestration process if the GOP will allow for new
revenues to be part of the replacement package.
“We could avoid these defense cuts tomorrow” if Republicans would
accept more revenues, Reid said.
Speaking after Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said
both parties want to have a “sense of the impact” of the
across-the-board spending cuts on specific programs.
McConnell said the administration “doesn’t want anyone to know with
any specificity” how the cuts would impact various government programs.
“We think more information is better than less,” McConnell said.
Congress has passed a bill calling on the White House to submit a
report on the programmatic effect of the across-the-board spending cuts
for FY2013.
** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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