Updated at 10:20 a.m.:
Soon after we posted our story, a House Budget Committee aide said Price plans to put forward several different options for achieving a balanced budget within 10 years that GOP lawmakers can select from in the days ahead.
The staffer said Price will present the options to the larger House GOP conference later this week and that the committee does not have a specific preference. The aide said the options are based off the input the committee recently received from lawmakers.
Reading between the lines: the budget blueprint will be a little late getting out the door. Leaders had planned on getting a move on early this year in order to leave time this spring for the consideration of government spending bills.
The House GOP is expected to meet on Wednesday morning, but given that nothing is ever simple on Capitol Hill it could take lawmakers some time to forge consensus.
“This proposal enjoys the overwhelming support of the committee members, and the chairman looks forward to sharing it with the broader Conference as we continue moving this process forward," a Budget Committee spokesman said.
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Original Post:
Roswell GOP Rep. Tom Price gets another moment in the spotlight this week. The House Budget Committee chairman plans to unveil his second budget blueprint, but he’ll have to thread a delicate political needle if he wants to see it advance.
He'll need to find a way to build consensus between two increasingly disparate wings of his party: fiscal conservatives wary of any federal spending that adds to the debt and defense hawks whose main focus is to funnel more resources to the Pentagon.
He’ll need to find the support of 218 Republicans, which means blocs within the party such as the House Freedom Caucus and the defense hawks effectively have veto power if they stick together, and the stakes are high.
Price's plan last year teetered at several points in the process, so how does the second-year chairman plan to get things done this time around?
“With documents this large, it’s important to make certain that we’re listening to every faction within the conference so that they have an understanding and appreciation for what it is that we have attempted to include in the budget that addresses their major concerns,” Price said in an interview with the AJC.
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