The Congressional Budget Act requires the House and Senate to pass a budget resolution by April 15th. Under Democratic control the Senate has not done so since 2009.

Last year Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) committed to his ranking member, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), that the committee would mark up a budget resolution this year.  By itself that’s only a first step but it’s a lot more than the Senate has done in the past three years.

Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has repeatedly said that he will not bring a budget resolution to the floor this year.  If Leader Reid were to carry out such a threat he would be violating the Budget Act requirement, but until now the issue has been moot. As long as the committee has not reported, the responsibility to act and blame for legislative inaction falls on Chairman Conrad.  If the committee reports a budget resolution then the responsibility for action and blame for inaction shift to Leader Reid.

Chairman Conrad’s announcement

Today Chairman Conrad announced that:

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  • Tomorrow he “will begin a Budget Committee markup of a long-term budget plan.”  (Begin, not complete.)
  • He will propose the Bowles-Simpson recommendations as his Chairman’s mark.
  • He “recognize