Murray: Budget deal ‘closer every hour’

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, emerged from a brief negotiating session with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday to say that a budget deal could come soon.
 
“We are closer every hour,” she said.
 
Ryan and Murray are racing to meet a Dec. 13 deadline for reaching a deal to reconcile the vastly different House and Senate budget resolutions.
 
{mosads}The top House and Senate budget conference negotiators met for about 30 minutes in the Capitol on Wednesday after Murray flew in from Washington state to resume face-to-face negotiations.
 
“We are still talking,” Ryan said after the meeting.

The two lawmakers are seeking an agreement to replace part of the $91 billion in sequester cuts called for in 2014 under the Budget Control Act. Those cuts would hit both defense spending and domestic programs.

An agreement could boost the top-line spending level from $967 billion to more than $1 trillion per year — far below the $1.058 trillion sought in Murray’s budget resolution, but above what House Republicans have proposed.

Lawmakers are said to be exploring ways to replace some of the sequester cuts without raising taxes.
 
One proposal on the table is increased retirement contributions for federal workers, but that has drawn fire from unions and members of the Virginia and Maryland delegations.