After weeks of intraparty debate, House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday had two lawmakers present to the GOP Conference proposals that could entice conservatives who say the $1.07 trillion budget is too costly. | AP Photo House GOP still looking for a way to pass their budget

House Republicans are still searching for a way — any way — to pass a budget, but prospects remain dim even after new proposals were floated in a closed-door party meeting Wednesday.

After weeks of intraparty debate, House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday had two lawmakers present to the Republican Conference proposals that could entice conservatives who say the $1.07 trillion budget is too costly, a leadership source said.


But budget hard-liners exiting the meeting said they were no closer to getting on board, and GOP leadership did not express optimism that adoption of the budget was likely anytime soon.

Asked whether the budget might come to the floor next week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California told reporters it was “a possibility” and that members were still discussing the issue.

Failure to pass a budget would be an embarrassment for Ryan, a former Budget Committee chairman, and leadership is clearly not giving up on the push just yet.

But two options floated on Wednesday may not break the impasse, including a proposal from Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) to “weld” together the budget resolution and a package of $30 billion in mandatory savings. Conservatives have demanded a budget that cuts $30 billion, which would bring spending down to the level that existed before President Barack Obama and former Speaker John Boehner reached a deal last year to ease the sequester.

Under the Griffith proposal, the accompanying legislation would not be a nonbinding resolution but an actual bill that could be signed into law. The leadership source said the budget then couldn’t take effect without the mandatory savings, which target Medicaid and Obamacare, also being enacted.

Such a move would allow conservatives to claim they voted for a budget with less spending than prescribed by the Obama-Boehner deal. But members of the conference’s right flank were cool to the proposal. They noted it was unlikely the package would be passed by the Senate or signed into law by Obama.

“You pass the budget resolution, the one thing you’re setting is the spending level,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the hard-line Freedom Caucus. “The other bill put onto it, if that’s not going to become law, then all you’re doing is setting a higher spending level.”

In fact, the House could soon be voting on appropriations bills that adhere to that higher, $1.07 trillion level; McCarthy said spending measures could start coming to the floor next week.

The House is permitted to bring appropriations bills to the floor after May 15 if a budget, which typically sets overall spending, hasn’t been adopted. Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers said Wednesday he hoped legislation to fund military construction and veterans affairs programs would be on the floor next week.

The other proposal pitched to the Republican Conference came from Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who has pushed for rules changes to prevent programs whose authorizations have expired from receiving appropriations and to allow changes to mandatory spending in appropriations bills.

Such rules changes would not be part of the budget itself, but are procedural changes that could be voted on by the GOP conference and be binding for Republicans. Many conservatives have expressed interest in tweaking the rules to make it easier to curb federal spending.

A third proposal was also floated in the GOP meeting Wednesday, though not by leadership. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina said there was some discussion about attaching the $30 billion sidecar bill to the Puerto Rico debt relief bill Republicans are struggling to advance.

“I think the Freedom Caucus would be willing to provide votes for both Puerto Rico and the budget if they had real cuts that had to go in Puerto Rico,” said Meadows, a member of the caucus. But, he added, leadership did not endorse the idea, and he said the GOP seemed no closer to consensus.

House Budget Chairman Tom Price, who authored the budget resolution approved by the committee in March, said he was still hopeful the conference would come together.

“Morgan Griffith and others have been very productive in their contributions. People are working to get their arms around what might be a good path forward,” the Georgia Republican said. “There are a lot of things that have been mentioned, but all these things are still in play. We just need to figure out what gets to the number of votes that are necessary.”



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