A compromise $1.1 trillion federal budget that meets agreed-upon military spending limits and provides extra money to explore space and to fight drug abuse is ready for final approval by the Senate.
The 1989 budget resolution was passed by the House, 201-181, just hours after final details were worked out by House and Senate negotiators Thursday. The Senate is expected to take up the measure after the Memorial Day recess.Once adopted by both chambers, the budget resolution will serve as a blueprint to be used by Congress in drawing up appropriations bills for fiscal 1989, which begins Oct. 1. President Reagan has no authority to sign or veto the resolution itself, but his signature is required on subsequent appropriations bills before they can become law.
The compromise calls for no new taxes except for $14 billion in levies ordered under a two-year program enacted last fall.
Earlier this year, the House and Senate passed separate versions of the spending program. Negotiators from each chamber began work in mid-April to iron out differences between the proposals.
Major sections of the spending plan were never in dispute because both the House and Senate, as well as the president, had designed their initial budget proposals to match requirements set forth in an agreement negotiated last fall between congressional leaders and the White House.
Among those requirements was the stipulation that the federal deficit be pushed at least as low as $136 billion next year. The compromise would cut that slightly more, to $135.3 billion.
Other requirements outlined by the negotiated agreement and reiterated in the budget resolution would provide $299.5 billion in military spending authority and would set discretionary domestic spending at $169.2 billion.
The issues at the heart of more than a month of often rancorous exchanges between House and Senate budget negotiators generally focused on how money should be divided among various domestic programs.
House Budget Committee Chairman William Gray, D-Pa., said negotiations with the Senate had been difficult because there was "not a lot of room for flexibility" under last year's budget summit agreement.
"Difficult choices had to be made to allocate limited resources available," Gray said. "This is a balanced approach in light of the fact we were limited by the size of the pie."
The Senate sought to increase the space exploration budget about 27 percent from this year's level to $13 billion. The House called for an increase only half as large, and the negotiators settled on $12.6 billion.
Both the House and the Senate tacked on provisions to earmark extra money to fight drug abuse. The compromise plan permits as much as $1.4 billion for whatever new anti-drug legislation Congress may enact.
1 yes, 1 no, 1 not voting
Utah's House delegation split its vote, with Democrat Wayne Owens voting yes, Howard Nielson voting no and Jim Hansen not voting.