Senate GOP offer budget schedule for March ahead of CR showdown

Business leaders say they need stability in addition to tax relief and regulatory reform for an environmemt that allows for job creation. An official federal budget would help provide the stability.

Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have put forward a schedule for producing a budget resolution this year to committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

The Senate has not passed a budget resolution since 2009, and Murray last year suggested that a budget may not get done again this year.

In a letter made public Wednesday, Republicans lay out a detailed hearing and markup schedule to meet the legal deadline for producing a budget.

They call for a budget markup on March 11 in committee and for March 18 floor consideration, leading to a conferenced House-Senate resolution by the April 15 deadline.

“We believe the Budget Committee cannot be a bystander at this historic time when the nation will be confronting the most serious debt issues. We must take the steps necessary to avoid what Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have told our committee will be the ‘the most predictable economic crisis in history,’ ” the letter states, naming the president’s deficit commission chairmen.

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