Crapo part of bipartisan budget effort

COEUR d'ALENE - Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Republicans promised if they took control of the Senate, they would get Congress rolling again, and now that's happening.

Crapo points to the bipartisan budget legislation that has now passed two houses, and if it survives the conference committee - to which Crapo was appointed - it will be the first budget Congress has passed since 2009.

He said the Medicare portion of the budget, which he helped pass in the Senate last week, was controversial but necessary to fix two recurring issues: Medicare reimbursements for doctors, and funding for rural schools.

The controversy is because that portion of the budget increases the federal deficit by $200 billion, and while lawmakers already have found cuts to cover $60 billion of those costs, they still need to offset an additional $140 billion.

Crapo said the conference committee appears to be committed to getting that done.

"I cannot give you the details of exactly what offsets we may use because the chairmen are working through those now," he said. "The best I can tell you is that I believe the chairmen are committed to finding offsets."

Crapo said the budget conference committee works a little differently than other conference committees. The committee is comprised of the entire Senate Budget Committee and a handful of House Representatives who also sit on that chamber's budget committee.

He said a majority of the House committee members must vote to get anything into the budget, and the same goes for the senators.

"But the chairmen do most of the negotiating on the budget," Crapo said, explaining they do it on behalf of their chamber's members. "And the members of the committee review the outcome of their negotiations."

Then, he said, each member of the committee gets an individual vote indicating whether they felt the chairmen negotiated on behalf of their chamber's interests.

While Congress has exceeded the budget's soft deadline of April 15, Crapo believes they will get the job done soon.

"I would expect that it could take a matter of days," he said. "It should be done within the next week or two."

In the meantime, the senator said Congress is busy on a number of other bipartisan bills.

He said there is a bill working its way through both houses that would give Congress the right to vote on any nuclear agreement with Iran, and another bipartisan effort to pass legislation on human trafficking.

"We are also working on a trade promotion authority," Crapo said. "There is a lot of activity right now. It's been a very productive time."