A House-Senate budget conference committee held its first public meeting Monday at the Capitol to tackle each party’s fiscal 2016 spending priorities, Defense News reported Monday.John Bennett writes that some conferees pushed for the formulation of a blueprint that is similar to the two-year budget resolution developed by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in 2012.
The deal offered relief from sequestration-related cuts to both defense and non-defense programs.
During the session, Republican members proposed an additional deficit reduction and criticized the Obama administration’s healthcare reform while Democrats targeted GOP-authored budget plans that cut funding for many domestic programs, according to Defense News.
Bennett reports Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, urged fellow lawmakers at the conference to formulate a bipartisan spending blueprint that would address a shortfall in annual defense funds.
