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 The small-scale agreement being negotiated by Senator Patty
Murray, a Democrat, and Republican Representative Paul Ryan would
lead to less than $100 billion in new savings, aides familiar with
the talks said.
The savings would replace some of the cuts that went into effect
automatically as part of the budget "sequestration" earlier this
year, and would provide a small amount of additional deficit
reduction, they said.
The deal being negotiated would set spending on discretionary
programs ranging from the military to national parks for fiscal 2014
and 2015 at around $1 trillion each year. Without action, such
spending would be automatically cut to $967 billion in 2014, the
lowest level in a decade.
Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee
and Murray, who chairs the Senate budget committee, are expected to
continue their talks on Friday with the aim of a deal that can be
passed next week, before the start of a House recess on December 13.
"I'm hopeful that next week we can show the people of this country
that we can produce something that is smarter than the way we're
going about things now," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a
Republican.
But any deal's fate in Congress could hinge in part on whether it
includes an agreement to extend long-term federal unemployment
benefits due to expire later this month for some 1.3 million
Americans. President Barack Obama and his Democrats want to extend
the benefits to avoid job losses caused by reduced consumer
spending, but Republicans question whether the benefits are still
needed in an improving economy and are opposed unless it is offset
by other savings.
Other difficult issues remain including a plan to require federal
workers to contribute more to their pensions, which are separate
from the Social Security retirement benefits system, and a move to
increase airport fees.
Both measures could be part of a broader effort to either raise
non-tax revenues or cut costs in order to ease some of the automatic
spending cuts.
"The last few steps are the hardest," a Senate Democratic leadership
aide said of the Murray-Ryan negotiations.
The $1 trillion top-line spending number, provided by a House
Republican aide, would allow Senate and House appropriators to
parcel out funding to the various federal agencies for the rest of
this fiscal year, which began on October 1, as well as the one that
starts on October 1, 2014.
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BROKEN PROCESS
Lawmakers, exhausted from three years of non-stop budget fights
which culminated in a 16-day shutdown of many federal agencies in
October, hope a deal would bring some sanity to the budget process.
The string of budget crises has contributed to historically low
public approval ratings of Congress.
Among the non-tax revenues considered in the talks is a contribution
of around $10 billion from an increase in airport security fees paid
by air travelers. Airlines for America, an industry trade group,
estimates the Transportation Security Administration fee would
double to $5 per ticket if the proposal is adopted, said Jean
Medina, a spokeswoman for the group.
"We think this is really a wrong-headed move, especially when air
travelers are already so heavily taxed," Medina said, adding that
the trade group handed out air sickness bags at Reagan National
Airport this week as part of a campaign to stop the fee increase.
Also unclear was whether any deal would contain a temporary "patch"
to prevent a scheduled reduction in payments to doctors treating
elderly patients in the Medicare program, a fix that tends to arise
every year.
If Ryan and Murray do reach a deal, it could draw opposition from
liberal Democrats, who do not support subjecting federal workers to
additional budget savings, as well as from conservative Republicans,
who will not get the long-term cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social
Security programs that they have been seeking.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Thomas Ferraro;
editing
by Vicki Allen, Cynthia Osterman and Paul Simao)
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