WASHINGTON-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan laid out three budget options for House Republicans on Friday, but told members that the best chance for getting appropriations bills through the Senate would be to stick to the funding levels approved in last year's budget deal.
According to members who attended the closed door meeting, the first option is to pass a fiscal 2017 budget at sequestration levels, and the second is to keep the increased level of defense funding but return to sequestration levels for non-defense. Both those options, Ryan told members, would guarantee that the Senate will block appropriations bills from moving forward and that Congress will have to pass a continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government.
The third option is to respect the budget agreement and write the 10-year budget blueprint to the higher fiscal 2017 numbers. That would lead to the best chance to pass appropriations bills through regular order, Ryan said, while not promising that all 12 bills could be signed into law.