WASHINGTON — After a vote by conservative Republicans controlling the House and President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies, a bipartisan budget pact is in the hands of the Senate.
The package passed by the House on Thursday would ease the harshest effects of another round of automatic spending cuts set to hit the Pentagon and domestic agencies next month.
At the same time, Democrats who were upset that the bill would not extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed suppressed their doubts to advance the measure to the Democratic-led Senate, where Obama’s allies appear set to clear it next week for his signature.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday morning that he would confer with GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to push consideration of the budget agreement sooner.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.