Democrats urge McConnell to include them in budget talks

Senate Democrats sent a letter Monday to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urging him to set up bipartisan talks now on the federal budget. Wait any longer, they wrote, and it could be too late to stave off cuts or even a government shutdown.

The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.  With it, sequestration, the blanket cuts to discretionary spending set by the Budget Control Act, is supposed to resume after a two-year absence.

“With the existence of a clear and urgent deadline for action, we believe it would be unwise to wait until after the Congress returns from the August state work period – just 23 days before the end of the federal fiscal year – to begin talks on a path forward,” said the letter, signed by all 46 Senate Democrats. “We cannot afford to wait, only to let delay and inaction bring us to the brink of another totally predictable and completely preventable crisis.”

A spokesperson for McConnell said his office tried to email an acknowledgment to Democratic staffers, only to receive out-of-office replies in the midst of the August recess. Both McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) repeatedly have said that they do not want a government shutdown. Yet the Senate has yet to pass any of the dozen appropriations bills that would fund agencies through September 2016.

“We’re going to leave that fight till September, October, November, December,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters last month before Congress adjourned.

The Republican party is divided on the issue of sequestration, with some saying that it should be rolled back for the Defense Department. Democrats, however, want the budget caps lifted for all agencies.

“Inaction and failure to responsibly restore sequester-level cuts in FY16 appropriations bills will have real consequences for our country. That is why we are eager to start working as soon as possible to negotiate a compromise that will keep our nation and economy strong, and keep the government open,” Senate Democrats wrote in the letter.

White House budget director Shaun Donovan recently said President Barack Obama would not accept a bill that “locks in” sequestration.

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