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Senate Dems to push budget priorities through amendments

by Rebecca Shabad - 03/11/15 3:23 PM ET

Senate Democrats won’t put out an alternative budget resolution and instead will push for their spending priorities through the amendment process, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday.

The ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee told a press conference Democrats plan to offer “very strong amendments” during markups next week and during the floor amendment process known as “Vote-A-Rama.”

{mosads}“I expect that my Republican colleagues will bring forth a budget that I would describe as the Robin Hood principle in reverse,” Sanders said, that he added would cut funding to programs that elderly, children, poor and sick people depend on.

The Senate GOP budget resolution will be unveiled next wee,k and Sanders said he expects it will look “a heck of a lot” like the budget prepared by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) last year, when he chaired the House Budget panel.

Sanders and some of his other Democratic colleagues — Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) — laid out some priorities that could appear in amendments.

They include creating jobs through rebuilding infrastructure, ending tax loopholes, raising the minimum wage, making college affordable to all students and extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Murray, who previously chaired the Senate Budget Committee, said there was bipartisan support for the December 2013 budget deal that rolled back sequestration for two years. Nine GOP senators voted for the deal.

“We’re willing to build on that,” she said about the agreement she reached with Ryan. “Hopefully it won’t take another government shutdown for Republicans to join us.”

The House and Senate Budget panels plan to each mark up their separate budget blueprints next week and bring them to the floor the last full week of March.

Tags 2015 budget Bernie Sanders Senate