With another deadline looming in two weeks, Biden carried the offer to Capitol Hill, where Republicans are demanding sharp and immediate cuts in spending to fulfill a campaign pledge to conservative voters who swept them to power in the House last fall.
The White House proposal falls far short of the $61 billion the House voted last month to slash from current funding levels. But senior administration officials characterized it as an opening bid in a process likely to stretch on for days.
At the Capitol, Biden, White House chief of staff William Daley and budget director Jacob Lew met for about an hour with top Republican leaders - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio - as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.
None would comment as they emerged shortly after 5 p.m. from Biden's ceremonial office just off the Senate floor. Biden later issued a statement, saying, "We had a good meeting, and the conversation will continue."
No further meetings have been scheduled. Congressional sources said the next step is to take two spending bills to the Senate floor early next week.
One will be the House-passed bill, which contains hundreds of provisions that are anathema to Democrats, including proposals to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and to gut federal authority to regulate clean air and water. The other will be the Democratic alternative that outlines the $6.5 billion in cuts the White House offered Thursday.
Both measures are expected to fall short of the 60 votes necessary to avert a filibuster. Aides in both parties said that would be progress: Failure in the Senate would show that neither plan is workable and that a compromise is needed.
Democratic leaders could then press reluctant liberals to support additional spending cuts. And Republican leaders would have fresh leverage with the independent-minded bloc of House conservatives who forced them to pursue far more ambitious cuts than were first proposed.
The maneuvering came one day after President Obama signed a stopgap measure that averted a government shutdown this weekend.
This article appeared on page A - 12 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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