House moves to reconcile budgets

The House approved a motion by voice vote on Tuesday to establish conference negotiations with the Senate for a fiscal 2016 budget resolution.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to announce members of the conference committee later Tuesday.

House and Senate Republicans each approved their own budgets last month before departing for the two-week spring recess.

{mosads}The House GOP budget would balance in nine years by cutting $5.5 trillion over the next decade, while the Senate version would eliminate the deficit in 10 years and cut $5.1 trillion in that timeframe.

Negotiators are expected to unveil a compromise budget in the coming weeks, or even days. Neither chamber can start floor consideration of fiscal 2016 appropriations bills before May 15 unless a budget is formally established.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said last week that the chamber plans votes during the last week of April on appropriations bills for the Department of Energy as well as for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects — among the easiest of the 12 annual appropriations bills to pass.