Analysis: Congress seems headed toward spending deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans and President Barack Obama’s Democrats, facing huge economic stakes, may soon reach a budget deal for this fiscal year after weeks of half measures to avert a government shutdown.
Worried about the fragile U.S. recovery and their own political well-being, members on both sides seem willing to resolve a gap between them on how much needs to be cut from federal spending this fiscal year to rein in the budget deficit.
“Chances of a deal seem reasonably good,” a senior congressional aide said, adding that talks may deepen when they move from staff level to the involvement of party leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives as early as next week.
The aide added that at least some House Republicans may back off demands for deeper cuts this year after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveils plans next week for additional reductions in fiscal 2012.
“That’s the hope,” the aide said, asking not to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the talks.
Boosted by election victories last November, Republicans have proposed $61 billion in cuts this fiscal year, which ends in September. Democrats have backed only $10 billion in cuts.
House Speaker John Boehner has signaled to Democrats they need to step up and make some tough choices.
Lawmakers concerned about U.S. efforts in Libya
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At least a few U.S. lawmakers say President Barack Obama should consult with Congress before committing any U.S. troops to support a U.N.-backed demand for a ceasefire in Libya.
“It is imperative that members of Congress, as the direct representatives of our constituents, have the opportunity to weigh in before decisions are made,” said Representative John Larson, a member of the Democratic leadership.
Larson made the comments in a statement on Friday shortly after Obama set terms of Washington’s limited involvement to protect civilians in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.
Obama said the United States would work with its international partners to enforce U.N. demands for a ceasefire, but promised no U.S. ground troops would be deployed in the North African country.
Still, just the prospect that U.S. troops, already engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, could get embroiled in another conflict makes many members of Congress nervous.
Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler said Congress must approve any U.S. military action in Libya.
“The president has an obligation under the Constitution to seek the approval of Congress for any use of military force unless there is an imminent threat to the United States or its allies,” Nadler said.
Republicans draft balanced budget amendment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five Senate Republicans plan to push for an amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced federal budget, aides said on Wednesday.
A number of such efforts have failed over the years. But backers are hopeful this one will succeed because of a major effort to trim the federal deficit, due to reach a record $1.65 trillion this year — equivalent to 10.9 percent of the U.S. economy.
“This is a different time, and it may be the time,” a senior Republican aide said.
Assistant Senate Republican Leader Jon Kyl is a co-sponsor of the proposed balanced budget amendment, along with Senators Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, John Cornyn and Pat Toomey, aides said.
They had scheduled a news conference for Thursday to unveil their measure, but postponed it late on Wednesday. An aide cited scheduling conflicts and a desire to attract more support in the Democratic-led Senate.
The aide said they would likely reschedule the news conference for after a weeklong recess set to begin on Friday.
Dan Ripp of Bradley Woods, a private firm that tracks Washington for investors, said, “The whole thing is a long shot.”
Boehner confident on getting budget deal, but admits it won’t be easy
House Speaker John Boehner, facing somewhat of a revolt in Republican ranks, says “it is not going to be easy” to craft and win passage of a bipartisan deal to cut spending and fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year.
But the top U.S. Republican said he remains confident that it will be done — somehow, some way.
“We never thought it was going to be easy,” Boehner said a day after the House passed a short-term funding bill that 54 of his 240 House Republican colleagues opposed.
Many of these Republicans — some veteran conservatives along with a number of newly elected lawmakers backed by the Tea Party — voted no because they felt that the $6 billion in proposed cuts over three weeks are woefully inadequate.
They also worry that the major policy changes they’re hoping to attach to a spending-cut bill this year will be thrown overboard. They include preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and stopping implementation of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
The Senate is expected to give final congressional approval to the House-passed measure by Friday, clearing the way for Obama to sign it into law. The House, Senate and the White House would then have until April 8 to reach agreement on another funding measure or face a government shutdown.
Democrats are hoping that Boehner leaves his Tea Party activists behind and cuts a deal with moderates to fund the government through Sept. 30.
Democratic congressman says he wants to make Obama ‘a better president’
Veteran Democratic Congressman John Conyers voiced some disappointment in President Barack Obama — and said he wants to help the leader of his party to do better.
In a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, Conyers criticized Obama on a number of fronts — from his overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system and management of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to agreeing to Republican demands last year to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, was first elected to Congress in 1964 — three years before after Obama was born. He backs Obama, but says, “I just want to make him a better president.”
Conyers is not alone in his complaints. A number of Democrats in Congress have expressed frustration with Obama, particularly for what they describe as his failure to push harder on liberal issues.
“The recent debate on healthcare has allowed opponents of the new law to say we have gone too far — when the truth is we have not gone far enough,” said Conyers, a backer of “a single payer” approach that would have a greater government involvement in delivery of health care.
“We’ve been in Afghanistan and Iraq for a decade and it’s time to leave both,” he said.
“Jobs cost House Democrats the election last year and could next cost (Democrats) the Senate and the presidency in 2012 unless we address the issue,” he said. “Pandering by giving Republicans more tax cuts is the wrong strategy that has not worked for the last 10 years to create jobs.”
Tea Party pressures Boehner in budget battle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner is under pressure from fiscal conservatives in his own party to push steep spending cuts, with a Tea Party stalwart likening the Ohio Republican to “a fool” for not taking a sharper knife to public programs.
Boehner’s House Republicans are leading the way in the rush to cut spending to bring down the budget deficit, due to reach a record $1.65 trillion this year, equivalent to 10.9 percent of the U.S. economy.
Republicans have proposed cuts of $61 billion in fiscal year 2011 from current levels, a step President Barack Obama says would choke the faltering economic recovery.
But for some in the Tea Party, it is not enough. They say the figure should be at least $100 billion.
“Congressman Boehner, you look like a fool,” Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, one of the loosely organized conservative movement’s most prominent groups, wrote in a recent blog.
“The Tea Party movement sprang up in 2009 as a reaction to insane government spending. In (the) 2010 election, the American people spoke, demanding change,” Phillips wrote. “John Boehner did not get the message.”
The Tea Party pressure comes as Boehner leads the Republican side in negotiations with the White House and Democrats to work out a spending bill for 2011. They must reach a long-term deal or a short-term funding bill by March 18 or some government services will shut down.
US Senate backs patent reform to cut backlog
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to overhaul U.S. patent laws, backing a measure aimed at chipping away at a huge backlog of patent applications and offering cheaper alternatives to litigation.
In a 95-5 vote, the Senate approved on Tuesday the bill that would boost funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and sets up mechanisms for objecting to patent applications and for challenging patents before they reach the courts.
There is no companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives at present, but Republican Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has said he is close to completing a draft.
Under the Senate bill, the United States would grant precedence to the first inventor to file a patent application, rather than requiring patent office examiners to decide who was first to produce an invention.
Supporters of the bill have said the first-to-file measure would make the patent application process easier for companies that apply for patents in multiple countries.
President Barack Obama said he was pleased that the bill passed. In a statement he called it “the most significant patent reform in over half a century.”
Before approving the bill, the Senate stripped out controversial provisions aimed at containing infringement damages and restricting forum shopping. Court decisions have already gone a long way toward accomplishing those goals.
US Senate approves patent reform to end backlog
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to overhaul U.S. patent laws, approving a measure aimed at chipping away at a huge backlog of patent applications and offering alternatives to expensive litigation.
The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 95 to five.
There is no companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives at present, but Republican Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has said he is close to completing a draft.
Under the bill, the United States would grant precedence to the first inventor to file a patent application, rather than requiring patent office examiners to decide who was first to produce an invention.
Supporters of the bill have said the first-to-file measure would make the patent application process easier for companies that apply for patents in multiple countries.
The White House said last week that it supported the legislation.
Before approving the bill, the Senate stripped out controversial provisions aimed at containing infringement damages and restricting forum shopping. Court decisions have already gone a long way toward accomplishing those goals.
Top Democrat draws line in sand in U.S. budget fight
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – Assistant U.S. Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin drew a line in the sand on Sunday in his party’s budget battle with Republicans, who are pushing deep spending cuts to trim the federal deficit.
Durbin, one of President Barack Obama’s top allies in Congress, said he opposed going beyond the $10.5 billion in domestic, non-defense discretionary spending cuts that Democrats have backed.
Republicans want $61 billion in spending reductions.
“I think we’ve pushed this to the limit,” Durbin told the “Fox News Sunday” television program as Congress and the White House prepared for another week of showdowns that threaten a government shutdown.
“To go any further is to push more kids out of school,” Durbin said. “It stops the investment of infrastructure, which kills good-paying jobs right here in the United States.’
“I’m willing to see more deficit reduction, but not out of domestic discretionary spending,” Durbin said.
Putting further cuts in non-defense, domestic discretionary spending off limits would force lawmakers to focus instead on areas such as the Pentagon, foreign aid and so-called entitlements, such as the Social Security retirement program.
Republican aims to defend US anti-gay marriage law
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Republican in the House of Representatives said on Friday he will seek to do what the Obama administration no longer does — defend a 15-year-old federal law against same-sex marriage.
Speaker John Boehner said he disagrees with President Barack Obama’s recent determination that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, and will move to have the office of the House General Counsel defend it.
“The constitutionality of this law should be determined by the courts — not by the president unilaterally,” Boehner said in a statement.
The administration last month, in a sudden reversal, said it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law in 1996 by then-Democratic President Bill Clinton.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration now agrees with a U.S. judge in Boston who ruled in 2010 that banning gay marriages was unconstitutional.
Previously, the Obama administration had appealed, saying it was obligated to defend U.S. laws.
The law defines marriage as a compact between a man and a woman and prohibits same-sex couples from receiving marriage-based federal benefits like Social Security survivor benefits, health benefits and the right to file taxes jointly.
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