Senate Dems Agree To House Funding Measure

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on Tuesday that his chamber will vote in the next two days to approve a House measure that extends funding for the government for another two weeks.

“We’ll pass this and then we’ll look to funding the government on a long-term basis,” Reid said. His announcement came shortly before the House held a vote on the funding measure.

Democratic support for the plan, a continuing resolution that keeps the government running through March 18, allows Congress to temporarily avoid a government shutdown.

For now.

Republicans and Democrats must get to work on passing a longer-term budget to get through the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Reaching agreement, however, may prove difficult as Democrats have called the GOP’s budget (which the House passed in February) “draconian.” It proposes cutting spending by roughly $61 billion.

The two-week proposal that Congress will approve cuts spending by $8 billion, mostly though eliminating earmarks in the current budget and phasing out programs that the White House has targeted for cancellation.

Speaking of the White House, President Obama phoned House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, presumably to discuss the Republican budget plan. The administration indicated support yesterday for a five-week measure aimed at shaving $8 billion from the budget. Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, defended that plan, arguing that the White House wanted lawmakers to avoid passing a series of temporary packages.