WASHINGTON — As expected, the U.S. Senate failed Wed nesday to advance either the House Republicans’ spending bill or an alternative proposal offered by Democrats, leaving lawmakers nine days to work on a compromise plan or face a government shutdown.
The vote in the Senate was 44-56 on the plan approved by the Republican-led House last month, which would cut current spending levels by $61 billion. A subsequent vote on the alternate proposal from Senate Democrats, which offers cuts of $6.5 billion, failed 42-58.
Colorado’s Democratic senators voted against both measures.
The votes come as President Barack Obama faces new pressure to exert greater influence over the congressional debate. As the Senate on Tuesday readied for votes on the competing measures, freshman Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., accused both parties of engaging in “political theater.”
“Why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations — our president — has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for?” Manchin said.
After Obama signed a short-term measure giving lawmakers two more weeks to agree on a longer deal, he tasked Vice President Joe Biden with heading up direct talks with the leadership of both parties in Congress. But Biden left days after that initial meeting for a three- nation tour of Europe.
The White House has maintained that the administration is still actively engaged, but it took steps Wednesday to do so more publicly.
Obama huddled with Senate Democratic leaders for a strategy session hours before the Senate vote. Earlier, the White House issued yet another veto threat of the House GOP’s budget proposal.
“The unbalanced bill would undermine the nation’s economic recovery and its ability to succeed in a complex global environment,” the administration said in a statement.
White House press secretary Jay Carney also announced that Biden was making a number of calls to congressional leadership from Moscow, where he met Wednesday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The White House maintains it has moved “halfway” toward Republicans’ proposal and is prepared to make cuts beyond the current offering from Senate Democrats. Republicans dispute the administration’s math, which is based on spending levels in the president’s last budget proposal, which was never implemented. In reality, the sides remain about $50 billion apart, with no indication of where compromise could be found.
Carney said he still believed all sides could reach an agreement before March 18, at which point the government would shut down without a new extension.
