Budget leaders begin to negotiate

Washington Times ^ | 9/08/01 | John Godfrey

[kattracks]

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee met for about 90 minutes yesterday to begin hashing out differences on 13 annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2002.

Sen. Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican who along with Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. requested the meeting sounded an optimistic note, saying there were only few substantial differences, and not a lot of money, separating them from final deals on most of the bills and agreement that the Social Security surplus was off-limits.