'I think we ought to do it right away,' Sen. John McCain said. Some in GOP antsy for budget talks

Several Senate Republicans are at odds with their leadership about the decision to delay sending the budget to conference with the House.

“I’m very much in favor of it, and I think we ought to do it right away,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told POLITICO. “And I think for us to after four years of complaining about Harry Reid’s failure to bring up a budget and then we do one and block conference is something that’s incomprehensible.”


Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, said he thinks Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should simply force a vote on sending the budget to conference. If he did so, Portman said he would vote in favor of starting the conference process.

For weeks now Democrats have been publicly beating up on Republicans for refusing to agree to a conference after the Senate and House both passed budgets in April. Democrats feel they have a winning hand and can convince voters this is another example of the Republicans obstructing progress.

But the partisan back and forth rose — or fell — to new levels this week, when Reid called Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a “schoolyard bully” for objecting to a motion to go to conference.

On Tuesday, Republicans — led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — accused Democrats of trying to sneak in a hike to the debt ceiling in the reconciliation bill. The debt ceiling is set to expire late this summer. McConnell, Cruz and others want to set the parameters of any conference before one starts.

“There has been some open discussion among members about pre-conference negotiations with Democrats, but so far, Democrats haven’t shown an interest in finding common ground,” said McConnell spokesman John Ashbrook. “Ironically, it’s Democrats who are trying to short-circuit regular order here.”

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The blocking in the Senate is largely an effort to protect House Republicans from being forced into taking uncomfortable votes from Democrats.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) acknowledged that is an issue for the GOP. After as many as 20 days into the conference process, House Democrats would be able to force votes on controversial issues known as motions to instruct.

McCain and Portman aren’t the only GOP senators ready to go to conference.

“I’m OK with it going now,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said. “I think [leadership is] coordinating with the House about what they’re going to do. It’s not a good position to be in.”

“I’ve always been in favor of regular order,” said Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

“There is value to regular order,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said, acknowledging he would like to see a conference now.

“I think we need to go to conference,” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) said. “I hope we can get it worked out. I’ve expressed the opinion that the Senate needed to have a budget, so we do have one. I think we can kind of get through the obstacles and get it to conference. I would very much like to see a conference.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a former House whip, acknowledged that Republicans “could be” letting Democrats beat them up for stalling the conference to help at the lower chamber. “There are worse things to be beat up about than whether you’ve gone to conference on the budget or not,” he said.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), a member of the Budget Committee, said he thinks a deal should be reached soon to send the budget to conference.

“I would say by the end of next week, we probably should be ready to go to conference,” Wicker said.

And while some members aren’t outright critical of the decision to delay, they are still hoping for a resolution.

“I hope we do get a budget eventually, and we’ll see if we can work through the procedural issues that we have right now,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “It’s hung up in the way things often get hung up around here, in procedural tactics. So hopefully, we can get through those and get to a place where we have a budget.”

For Reid to force a vote on creating a conference, it becomes more complicated.

He would have to call up the House-passed budget and after 50 hours of debate, hold a vote to amend it with the Senate version, which would require only 50 votes. After another 10 hours of debate, Reid would be able to require members to vote on naming conferees.

But it would open up the potential for another unlimited “vote-a-rama,” both on the amendment and then on naming conferees.

Reid could have avoided the second vote-a-rama if he had just waited for the House to pass its budget before the Senate took up its own, a senior GOP aide said. The same aide argued that the rush to finish the budget at the end of March was an effort to complete voting before the White House released its own budget and, in turn, Republicans forced a vote on it.