All the players say they want it. And they’re all suggesting the same plan to get it. Relief from sequestration might make agency chief financial officers weep with joy. And as spring turns to summer, the prospects for a deal like the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Agreement seem to get better.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “If there’s a way to reduce mandatory spending in a way that would provide relief to the sequester like we did with the Ryan-Murray budget plan, have at it,” according to Fox News. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats in the House “believe the sequester needs to be changed a la Ryan-Murray or some other agreement because [the subcommittee allocations] are unrealistic, they are ill-conceived, and they will harm America if pursued.” And Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan said congressional Republicans should start negotiating with Democrats on a framework to “follow the bipartisan model we had two years ago, the Murray-Ryan deal, raise our investment on the non- defense side and the defense side of the budget on the discretionary side, and pay for it through smart reforms to our medical programs and to our tax system.” Donovan is right. The time is now — not the Sept. 30 budget deadline — to get the deal done that everyone sees coming. This is the right time for a deal because:

• Face time is better for deal making. Congress is in session, starting next week, for eight of the next nine weeks. Then they go away for most of August, and don’t return until after Labor Day. That’s cutting it too close, unless leadership is willing to continue the living-on-the-edge gamesmanship that has driven Congress’ approval rating lower than carnies, lice and Nickelback. A done deal before the summer recess would give members a chance to go home in August and tell their constituents they know how to govern.
• The framework already exists. Every time this topic comes up, the term “Ryan-Murray” is used to describe it. Just plug the numbers into a new deal and be done. “You oversimplify it,” one might say. Maybe I do, but the concept seems, to outside observers, really that simple. The only holdup? Congressional Democrats and Republicans have to “have the ‘break up to make up’ period” before they can make a deal, David Hawkings of Roll Call said on my show this week, invoking respected budget experts the Stylistics. Translation: They have to create a fake political fight before they make a deal. That’s silly, and exactly what the majority of their constituents don’t want.

Everyone knows how this story will — or at least should — end. So Congress, just get it over with. Make a spending deal now, and show the country you don’t deserve worse approval ratings than Nickelback.

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From the If-We-Did-It-You’d-Freak-Out file: David Hawkings also reports at least 50, and maybe as many as 70, members of Congress now live in their offices full-time instead of finding residences in D.C. Sleeping in their offices, according to some members, shows they’re “frugal and disconnected from Washington,” David tells me. And when someone points out they’re actually freeloading off the taxpayers, they can’t figure out how. Here’s how: free rent, free utilities, free cable TV, and so on. If a cabinet secretary did it, he or she would be chewed up one side and down the other by the appropriate committee of jurisdiction. Advice for all members of Congress sleeping in your offices: get a room. One you pay for. It was pretty obvious when you ran that you would have to move to Washington to do the job. Don’t do something you would tear up an executive branch leader for doing.

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Francis Rose is host of Federal News Radio’s In Depth radio show, which airs weekdays from 4-7 p.m. MORE COMMENTARY FROM FRANCIS ROSE: Three takeaways from Management of Change 2015 Postal Service needs some transformation pain now to avoid desperation later Time is right for a civilian employee compensation commission New Congress ‘worst places to work’ hotline: right idea, wrong question FY2016 budget: put up or shut up time for Congress After Denver hospital debacle, VA should leave building to the pros

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