Senate leaders appoint budget negotiators

Leaders in the Senate on Wednesday evening appointed the members of a budget conference committee that will be tasked with crafting a final spending blueprint for fiscal 2016 with the House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appointed all GOP members of the Budget panel to the conference committee.

The GOP conferees are Chairman Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and David Perdue (Ga.).

{mosads}Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed all members on the minority side of the budget panel: Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Angus King (I-Maine).

Their appointments come a day after House leaders named conferees from the lower chamber to the conference committee.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appointed Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (Ga.), Vice Chairman Todd Rokita (Ind.) and committee members Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Diane Black (Tenn.) and John Moolenaar (Mich.) to the panel.

The three House Democratic conferees are Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the House Budget panel’s ranking member, and Reps. Gwen Moore (Wis.) and John Yarmuth (Ky.).

Republicans will miss the legal deadline Wednesday to adopt a conference agreement on the GOP budgets in both chambers. Congress has missed the deadline numerous times and have rarely completed action in time with few consequences.

Earlier Wednesday, Enzi suggested the conference committee would formally meet next week.