Mitch McConnell: Even without budget, spending process will begin next week

Unable to pass an actual budget for the coming year, the Senate will rely on funding levels the parties agreed to last fall when it kick-starts the annual spending process with an energy-and-water bill next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.

Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said the chamber is still waiting on the House to pass a fiscal blueprint for 2017.

A conservative rebellion there may have doomed those chances, though, so GOP leaders in both chambers are forging ahead with appropriation bills that fund the basic functions of government.

“We’ll mark these bills to the top-line that we agreed to in the agreement last year,” Mr. McConnell said after weekly party lunches.

Congressional Democrats loudly criticized GOP leaders for failing to rally behind a budget before the looming April 15 deadline, since Republicans had repeatedly mocked Senate Democrats for failing to produce a blueprint when they controlled the upper chamber.

“They made it a big deal. Hypocrisy is part of it,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said Tuesday.

The sticking point is $30 billion in domestic spending hikes departing Speaker John A. Boehner and President Obama agreed to for 2017.

Conservatives say Congress should cut $30 billion in either discretionary or entitlement spending to undo the hikes, though congressional Democrats have warned Republican leaders that they won’t help the process along unless the majority abides by last year’s deal.

Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi, Wyoming Republican, said he will comply with a provision in the pact that requires him to file the top-line spending number of $1.07 trillion after the April 15 deadline, giving appropriators the green light to divvy up the money.

House appropriators have already released two of their spending bills for 2017. The first would provide $81.6 billion for veterans programs and military construction, or $1.8 billion above this year’s levels.

The second, posted Tuesday, would provide $37.4 billion for energy and water infrastructure and nuclear security, or $259 million above this year’s levels and $168 million above what Mr. Obama requested in his 2017 plan.

“With ever-changing global threats, it is vital we keep the country at the very pinnacle of nuclear security preparedness. This bill prioritizes funding to ensure that our stockpile is modern, secure and ready,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, Kentucky Republican.